Law student suicide: Amity sends two faculty members on leave

Noida, Aug 16 (PTI) Amity University today asked two ofits faculty members to proceed on leave as it set up a six-member committee to probe the death of a law student whosefamily has accused college authorities of abetting suicide. "We have formed a six-member committee to investigate theissue and submit a report. To ensure a fair enquiry, twofaculty members have been asked to proceed on leave till theprobe is over," said Amity spokesperson Savita Mehta. Sushant Rohilla, a 4th year student of BA-LLB course inthe college, had last week allegedly committed suicide at hisresidence in south Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar area. Family members and friends of the 20-year-old Amity LawSchool student, today staged a protest outside the collegehere, alleging foul play on the part of its authorities. The deceased, who was son of a joint secretary-levelofficial in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, was debarred fromappearing in the sixth semester exams in May due to "shortageof attendance". According to his family, Sushant and 19 other students,who were not permitted to take the exams, were promised thatthey will be allowed to take the exams and promoted to thenext semester. "The college authorities did a volte-face and sent him anemail, one month after the exam, stating that he had beendetained due to short attendance and he should apply forreadmission in the same semester. He was under lot of pressuresince," Mehak Rohilla, the deceased’s sister said. Rohilla’s kin and friends today gathered outside the lawschool premises and staged a protest, demanding a probe intothe incident. Amity authorities, however, denied having any role inRohilla’s death and expressed grief over the incident. "Amity Law School, Delhi, is affiliated to Guru GobindSingh IP University. The students were detained as per thedecision of that varsity and Amity Law School, itself, hadabsolutely no role," Mehta said. "Rohilla had 43 per cent attendance, while the IPUniversity mandates that a student should have at least 75 percent attendance. This was conveyed to his parents many a timesthrough e-mails. "The attendance, as per the rules of IP University, wassent to IPU, which issues admit cards to the students forexaminations," she added. PTI GJS GVS ZMNGVS