Suicide by student: Family wants action against teacher

4 months after suicide, ‘failed’ student found to have topped class

Distressed after being declared failed in physics, a 17-year-old electronics engineering student of Gogjibagh Government Polytechnic College, Srinagar, had committed suicide, but four months after his death, a re-evaluation found that he not only passed the subject but topped his class.
The family members of the deceased, Adnan Hilal Gilkar, held a massive demonstration in Srinagar today against the teacher who failed him. “He committed suicide as he could not see himself failing after working hard in his favourite subject,” his family members said.
The faulty evaluation process has left Adnan’s parents numb, who feel that it is not a case of suicide but “murder” as their son actually secured 48 marks in physics and not 28 as declared earlier. He had bagged around 70 per cent aggregate marks in the first semester of the course, making him topper in the class. However, it took the authorities four months to realise Adnan’s correct score.
The protesters including his family members, students and faculty members, demanded stern action against the teacher involved in the evaluation. The protesters demanded Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed’s intervention in the case.
“My son’s death is not a suicide but a murder as he was forced to take the extreme step by the cruelty of some people in the system,” said Hilal Ahmad, the grieving father. “It is a murder and people responsible for it need to be identified and acted against as per the service rules of the government,” he said.
Many students alleged that a teacher deliberately failed him and it was the “case of revenge”.
“Adnan would often pose some uncomfortable questions in the class and the teacher usually would not be able to answer him. Embarrassingly, he would often harass him and threat him of failing in the exams,” said one of the protesting student.