Foul play': Family, friends protest outside Amity Law School over student suicide

Noida: Family members and friends of a 20-year-old Amity Law School student, who had allegedly committed suicide last week, staged a protest outside the college on Tuesday, alleging foul play on the part of its authorities.

Sushant Rohilla, a 4th year student of BA-LLB course in the college, had last week committed suicide at his residence in south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar area.

Amity University, however, has denied of having any role in Rohilla's death and expressed grief over the incident.

The deceased, who was son of a joint secretary-level official in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, was debarred from appearing in the sixth semester exams in May due to "shortage of attendance".

According to his family, Sushant and 19 other students, who were not permitted to take the exams, were promised that they will be allowed to take the exams and promoted to the next semester.

"The college authorities did a volte-face and sent him an email, one month after the exam, stating that he had been detained due to short attendance and he should apply for readmission in the same semester. He was under lot of pressure since," Mehak Rohilla, the deceased's sister said.

Rohilla's kin and friends today gathered outside the law school premises and staged a protest, demanding a probe into the incident.

When contacted, an Amity spokesperson said, "Amity Law School, Delhi, is affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh IP University. The students were detained as per the decision of that varsity and Amity Law School, itself, had absolutely no role."

"Rohilla had 43 per cent attendance, while the IP University mandates that a student should have at least 75 per cent attendance. This was conveyed to his parents many a times through e-mails.

"The attendance, as per the rules of IP University, was sent to IPU, which issues admit cards to the students for examinations," the spokesperson added.

Amity University asked two of its faculty members to proceed on leave as it set up a six-member committee to probe the death of a law student whose family has accused college authorities of abetting suicide.

"We have formed a six-member committee to investigate the issue and submit a report. To ensure a fair enquiry, two faculty members have been asked to proceed on leave till the probe is over," said Amity spokesperson Savita Mehta.