Plea in HC for CBI probe into 14 suicides in IIT Madras

The Loktantrik Janata Dal's youth wing has moved the Madras High Court, seeking a CBI probe into into '14 suicides' at the IIT-Madras here since 2006.

The outfit, in a Public Interest Litigation petition, said 14 students have so far reportedly committed suicide on the IIT Madras campus here since 2006 as they faced "discrimination" on the basis of religion, caste and language.

Of the students who ended their lives, five were from Andhra Pradesh, three from Kerala, two each from Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh and one each from Puducherry and Jharkhand and recently Fathima Latheef, a 19-year old student had committed suicide.

However, the institution has not taken any steps to go into the reason behind such suicides, national president of the party's Yuva Janata Dal, Saleem Madavoor, said.

Neither the Tamil Nadu government nor the local police had conducted any fruitful inquiry to bring out the reasons behind such deaths, he alleged. The PIL plea is expected to come up for hearing on December 2.