JNU suicide: Dalit scholar was not part of any political group, say police

New Delhi: A day after a 27-year-old Dalit student allegedly committed suicide at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, police on Tuesday said he was not part of any politically active group on the campus.

The deceased Muthu Krishnan, who had named himself 'Krish Rajini' on Facebook, hanged himself at his South Korean friend's house in Munirka using a blanket on Monday.

While the JNU students shared Krishnan's Facebook posts condemning the hyderabad varsity's alleged role in dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide last year and criticism of JNU's new admission policy, police ruled out any political affiliation of the victim.

"It is too early to comment on his association (with Rohith Vemula). But so far, we know that he (Krishnan) was not associated with any student groups active in JNU. He neither made any complaint to the JNU administration nor was there any complaint against him by the administration," DCP (South) Ishwar Singh said.

The reason why the student took the extreme step is not known yet since no suicide note has been recovered, said the officer.

"It is an unfortunate incident. We conducted a search of his hostel room and the room where his body was found. But no suicide note has been recovered. We have sealed both the rooms. Forensic teams will be examining the rooms again," he added.

Krishnan's body was discovered by his friend Gomen Kim, a South Korean national, and two other students – Lakshyajeet and Issac – at Kim's home where they had gone for lunch.

The victim had retired to a room, saying that he had slept at 3 AM the day before and wanted to rest, police said.

Around 4.30 PM, his friends called him and when he did not respond, they tried to break open the door and saw him hanging following which they alerted the police.

Police said they will be scanning Krishnan's Facebook posts and call records to ascertain what could have triggered such an extreme step.

We have requested for a medical board to carry out his post-mortem, they added.