Hyderabad, Sept. 10: The mother of a GMR institute student who was allegedly sodomised by his seniors last week committed suicide yesterday.

Forty-five-year-old Lalitha hanged herself from a ceiling fan while her son, P. Mukesh, and husband Iswar Rao were away in Rajam for the inquiry being conducted by the state human rights commission.

Neighbours who saw images of Mukesh on television reportedly badgered her with embarrassing queries — though some offered words of sympathy — on the incident, apparently driving her to suicide.

“Wasn’t that your son on TV? Didn’t some of his friends strip and abuse him?” were some of the questions they asked Lalitha.

Rao said they found her hanging in the bedroom of the family’s house in Salur after returning from Rajam, in Srikakulam, last evening.

Back in Rajam, rights panel secretary Chellappa said he had spoken to Venkat Rao, the principal of the GMR Institute of Technology, and Prasad, the institute’s dean.

“We have taken up the case following press reports and police action,” Chellappa said.

The college authorities tried to shake off blame for the ragging incident, arguing before the commission that it “happened outside the campus”. But their argument was rejected.

“You are equally responsible for the act as it is your students who did it,” Chellappa countered.

On Tuesday, six seniors had called Mukesh, who lived in an adjacent room in their apartment block, to their room.

After initially teasing him, they forced him to undress. The torment began when he refused to have sex with them. The six also allegedly sodomised another student, Ramesh, and asked a junior, Harish, to take photographs.

According to police, while Mukesh lodged a complaint, the other two victims fled.

The six, remanded in judicial custody till September 20, have been debarred from the institute. They face a year in jail if convicted under the Andhra Pradesh Prevention of Ragging Act, 1997.

Mukesh has expressed his reluctance to continue at the institute, saying he sees a threat from friends of the arrested students. He has sought assistance from the government for admission in any other college in Srikakulam district, or in Visakhapatnam.

Early this month, juniors at Kurnool Medical College were held hostage for nearly four hours and pictures of them shot as they were made to walk up naked two flights of stairs in their hostel.

Student quizzed

Police in Hyderabad say they are grilling a local engineering college student after investigations into an unconfirmed ragging complaint threw up his mobile number.