HYDERABAD: A Class 6 student, who was allegedly homesick and depressed about being in a hostel, allegedly ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling of the dormitory where four other students were sleeping on Tuesday midnight.
Fareeduddin, aged 12, ended his life just a week after joining the hostel of Telangana Minorities Residential School (Boys) at Shapur Nagar in Jeedimetla. Each night that Fareed spent with them, friends said, he used to weep inconsolably, wanting to go back to his mother.
Acting on a complaint, police registered a case of unnatural death, reasons for which are ‘unknown’.
Fareeduddin, in the room at the time of the incident. There were five in the room and as his roommates were fast asleep, Fareeduddin climbed onto the upper berth of the bunk bed and used the blanket as the noose to commit suicide. The incident came to light when a roommate woke up at midnight to go to the urinal. Shocked at the gory sight, he shouted at him to get down. “You should not be doing this kind of joke with us, come down at once,” shouted Asif (name changed). “When there was no response, I quickly alerted the warden who stays opposite our dormitory,” he said.
On being informed, police shifted the body to hospital for post mortem. The roommates were so traumatised that they wanted to be shifted to another room.
Fareeduddin joined the school only on July 7. “During the four days, he stayed with us only for one night and would always cry. We used to give him counselling every night and send him to his mother as he could not adjust to the atmosphere here,” said Aslam Nazir, principal of the school.
“The child had only his mother and we believe he might have gone into depression because he was away even from her,” he added. “The child had his meal as usual and appeared normal. We thought that he would slowly get used to the hostel atmosphere but never expected him to commit suicide. We are still feeling the chills,” said Lakshmi, a member of the housekeeping staff.
While the police brushed off the incident as an act of suicide because of unknown reasons, the family members allege that the deceased was either put to a lot of physical abuse either by the warden or by his roommates. “When we checked the body at the hospital there were scars on his ear and back which seemed like bruises and nail marks. We feel that either his friends or the warden might have beaten him which might have driven him to take that extreme step,” said, Sajida, his aunt.