The case of 17-year-old Hemanth, who fell to his death from the fifth floor of his college on Thursday, saw a twist on Friday with the college authorities claiming that the teenager was in love with a girl and had jumped in front of two of his friends after she dumped him recently.
Hemanth’s father had on Thursday filed a complaint in which he said his son’s fall was ‘accidental’. Hemanth was a first PU student at Sri Krishna International PU College in ITI Colony, Banashankari Stage III.
Speaking to Express on Friday, Chairperson of the Sri Krishna International Education Society, M Rukmangada Naidu, said, “Apparently, he was in love with a girl from the same college. They were spotted together by the girl’s father and the boy was scared of the repercussions. This is what we gather from whatever we have heard.”He added that Hemanth and the girl resided in the same locality. “One of our support staff saw him taking the plunge. A lecturer tried to save him, but he fell sideways. However, he was alive. He was immediately shifted to a nearby hospital, but we were asked to take him to NIMHANS. He was breathing for another hour there,” he said.
The college management has asked the police to access Hemanth’s call records to find out whom he was in touch with before his fatal fall. “We searched his bag. There was no suicide note,” Naidu said.
The college had declared a holiday on Friday in view of the incident. However police suspect that the college was trying to cover up the issue by claiming that the boy killed himself due to a love affair instead of accepting that there was a possible lack of safety measures. The boys who witnessed the fall could not be traced on Friday.