Friends of Swayamprabha Rout, who allegedly committed suicide yesterday, at SCB Medical College and Hospital and (below) the girl’s father Prashant Kumar Rout. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, April 10: A 20-year-old student of Ravenshaw University here committed suicide late last night.

Friends of Swayamprabha Rout cited burden of parental expectations as the reason for her to commit suicide. The incident sent shockwaves throughout the campus of Ravenshaw University.

Swayamprabha, a first-year student of Plus III information science and telecommunications, ended her life by consuming poison.

She was rushed to the Sriram Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College and Hospital late last evening, but breathed her last around 12.30am.

Although parents of the girl claimed complete innocence, her friends said she might have taken the extreme step because of intense family pressure on her to do well in examinations.

They alleged that Swayamprabha had sent them text messages hinting at mental torture by family members, especially her uncle.

“She used to tell us that her family members were putting pressure on her to do well in the examinations. In one of her text messages, she mentioned that at the time of admission her uncle had asked her to either perform well or be prepared to be thrown out of house,” said Joga Ranjan Behera, a classmate.

“Swayamprabha was expecting poor marks in one subject and the results were expected soon. She was behaving quite normally when she came to the college to fill up the form for the second semester examination yesterday,” said Chiranjiv Behera, another student.

The girl’s family, who live in Tinigharia (which falls in Chauliaganj police station limits), denied the charge outright.

Asserting that there was no such pressure on Swayamprabha, her father, Prashant Kumar Rout, said: “My daughter was very strong mentally. We never discussed issues like marks and examination with her at home. There was no such pressure from the family on her.”

Rout said last evening when he returned from the market with his wife, Swayamprabha was sleeping in her room. “Later, she had her meals. After some time, she started vomiting,” he recalled.

Her father said Swayamprabha had appeared normal when she asked him to fill up a form for opening a bank account for her.

“My daughter had her dinner and later went to bed. When she started vomiting, we had to rush her to the hospital,” said Rout.

Describing the incident as “unfortunate”, Saroj Kumar Singh, a lecturer at the university, said the news of Swayamprabha’s suicide had shocked the university faculty and her friends.

“On Friday, she was in my class till 5pm. She had appeared normal. She was good at her studies and always sat in the front row,” said Singh.

While the Mangalabag police have registered a case of unnatural death, a post-mortem was conducted today.