Student threatens VC over attendance

Hyderabad, Nov. 25: An unidentified student has threatened to kill the JNTU vice-chancellor and poison the water on the campus if a decision to detain 2,800 engineering students for lack of attendance is not withdrawn.

Interestingly, the email, which also threatens to blast the university building, was sent from the ID of the vice-chancellor, Prof. D.N. Reddy himself, using a new masking technology.

It was also sent to the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the CM, Mr K. Rosiah, and the minister for higher education, Mr Sreedhar Babu.

The sender also threatened to kill the minister as well as the chairman of the AP State Higher Education Council if the attendance rule is not relaxed.

“My email ID was not hacked but the police told me that a new technology was used wherein the sender cannot be identified,” said the VC. “I also got threatening calls from the person and immediately informed the police.”

As per JNTU rules, it is mandatory for every student to have 65 per cent attendance to qualify for semester examinations.

In each semester, there are 90 working days and this means that a student should attend classes for at least 59 days (65 percent attendance). This means 31 days of leave.

However, the students have been demanding 55 per cent attendance per semester. “Of those who are detained, only 3 per cent are bright students,” said a professor. “The rest are NRI and management quota students.”