More villages to boycott poll over Haryana girl's self-immolation

Over half-a-dozen villages and four Gurgaon colleges Monday extended their support to Pinky Chauhan, who set herself afire last month to protest "intentional" poor marking by her college management, and decided to boycott Wednesday's Haryana assembly election.

Residents of Kasan village, near Manesar, to which Pinky belonged, had Sunday decided to boycott the Oct 15 state polls.

The panchayat of over half-a-dozen villages, including Bass Kushla, Dhana and Aliyar was organised in Kasan village Monday. Students of four Gurgaon colleges affiliated to Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak also attended the community meeting.

"Students of Government College for Women sector 14, DSD Government College, Government College sector 9 and University Institute of Law and Management Studies also decided to abstain from voting if justice was not given to Pinky," the deceased's brother Arun Chauhan, an engineering student, told IANS.

Over 20,000 students study in these colleges.

Pinky was among the over 1,000 students protesting against the management of the Government Post-Graduate College for Women near Sector 14 here and MDU, Rohtak, for "intentionally" giving them low marks.

The girl, a B.Sc. IInd year student, was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi Sep 29 with 90 percent burn injuries after she set herself afire. She succumbed to her injuries Sunday.

"People want justice for Pinky who lost her life due to negligence of her teachers. She identified five lecturers, including four women. We want them to be booked for murder and their immediate arrest," he said.

A case of abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy and other sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the college management.

Hundreds of students from the science and commerce streams were declared failed in the examinations that were conducted recently.

"Authorities have declared many students, shown failed earlier, to have passed," Arun said.

The women's college has been closed till Oct 25.

The state higher education department has decided to close two other government colleges in Gurgaon till Oct 15.