November 19,2008: Hindustan Times & Dainik Bhaskar

Collector Manish Rastogi has ordered for Magistrate checking under Additional Collector Vikas Mishra on the suicidal case of MANIT student Rahul Pathak. The report of this is likely to be submitted in 30 days. So all the students of MANIT are requested to give their statement in collectrate office, room no. 109. Be a part of this change and speak the truth about Rahul Pathak.

MANIT Students at Strike against the Director

Following the suicidal death of our 2nd year student – Rahul Pathak, a protest against the current Director K.S.Pandey was observed at the Institute’s gate at around 4pm 15th Nov 2008. The director, K.S. Pandey is responsible for the suicide incident and a number of ill treatments to the students and their parents for the past 3 years. The students requested the concerned authorities to remove the director from his post and from the college immediately. The students of MANIT condemned the Director for both the death of Rahul Pathak and various illegal activities happening in the Institute since his arrival to the institute.

And the protest went on without any violence until midnight when the police forces started beating up the students and tried to break the protest with force. There were many casualties including 5 head injuries. The students were completely without any violence and demanded their objectives with a simple protest at the institute’s gate by blocking the road with themselves sitting on the road. The protest went on peacefully till around midnight but was disturbed by the approaching police forces with lathi charges. There were many casualties amongst the students including 5 head injuries. And within minutes, the police forced all the students inside their hostels. A little later, the police started arresting any student found outside the hostels. 16 students were caught that night including innocent students who were not involved in the protest. This is how they suppressed the protest for that night. But as everyone knows, the protest is not over yet and now we are taking more serious and better ways to reach objectives.

The Truth behind Rahul Pathak’s death

On 15th Nov 2008, Rahul Pathak, a 2nd year student of MANIT Bhopal died of a suicide attempt. Following that incident, students of the Institute protested against the institute’s staffs by blocking the institute’s Main Gate. This incident has been a focus for many news agencies in Bhopal for the last three days. However, the true story of how and why Rahul Pathak died on that day has never been made clear by any of the news agencies. In an attempt to make the real story known to people, we (the students of MANIT Bhopal) write a blog to show the truth behind the death of Rahul Pathak.

About one and a half months ago, Rahul Pathak had been accused by the college authorities that he had allegedly participated in ragging the juniors. However, Rahul was not directly involved with any of the ragging activities and his absence from the ragging activities had been confirmed by all of the junior students who were being ragged that day. This fact is supported by the list of signatures from the 1st years claiming that he wasn’t the one who ragged them. Leaving behind all these facts, the college authorities led by the director K.S.Pandey along with other administration staffs tortured the student till his last moments.

The Day before Rahul’s death, he was called upon by the management staffs including director K.S.Pandey, M.S. Chouhan (Warden Hostel No.3), M.K. Gupta (COE), Arun Shandilya (Dean Students’ Welfare) and he had been tortured both physically and mentally. He was slapped in the face again and again and in the end, they threatened him and used abusive languages. They threatened him that he will never pass the exams until and unless his parents come and fall under their feet. Also, he was allowed to write the first 2 subjects of the semester exams. But while he was giving exam, Arun Shandilya came and told him that he would never let him pass the exam. Shandilya said these words “You will never pass this exam no matter how many exams you give”. Afterwards he was seen very depressed until his friends and seniors tried to console him and make him feel better.

The next day at around 12 o’ clock noon, the two wardens of his own hostel called him to their office and tortured him the same way it was done the day before. And that was the last thing that happened to him. Right after he was dismissed by the two wardens, he was found hanged in his room at around 1:30pm. Even though his friends tried their best to save him and took him to a hospital, he could never make it.