The Hindu Business Line : Probe ordered into suicide by Kerala engineering student

THE Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, has ordered a judicial probe into the circumstances leading to the incident in which an engineering girl student jumped to death from a high-rise building in full public view here on Thursday evening.

Announcing this in reply to an adjournment motion on the issue in the State Assembly on Friday, Mr Antony said preliminary reports had suggested that the girl, belonging to a poor family in the suburbs, had discontinued studies due to financial problems.

She was a student of the Engineering College in Adoor run by the Institute for Human Resources Development in Electronics, an autonomous society under the State Government.

The Chief Minister said he shared the Opposition's concern over the development, especially in the context of reports that commercial banks in the locality refused to entertain the student's application for an education loan.

The issue of commercial banks denying education loans would be taken up with the Union Finance Minister and even the Prime Minister, Mr Antony said. He had already raised the issue at one of the meetings of the State Level Bankers' Committee. The Government intended to take it up with the banks once again.

The Chief Minister assured the members that stern action would be taken against individuals or institutions for any lapse on their part in dealing with students demand for the loan.

Earlier, student activists took to the streets in Thiruvananthapuram protesting against the educational policy of the State Government, which they said was responsible for the suicide.

The police had to burst tear gas shells to chase away mobs that threatened to force their way into the Government Secretariat buildings here.

The protestors also pelted stones at the offices of the Indian Overseas Bank and Canara Bank in the heart of the city and set fire to a car.

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