By F. M. Britto
Raipur, Jan 23, 2020: Police in Chhattisgarh are investigating the reason for a ninth grade boy, who committed suicide at a Catholic hostel in Jairamnagar, near Bilaspur in the central Indian state.
The CCTV footage showed Dileshwar Marawi going to St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School on the morning of January 20, but returning alone to his hostel dormitory in the same campus. He allegedly committed suicide by tying a wire on the ceiling fan and hanging.
Father Pankaj Shuklal, the school principal, said Marawi was calm and quiet and good in studies, coming in the ninth or tenth rank, “No one knows the reason.”
None of his companions also know the reason for his death. Even the police and his family members are unable to decipher the reason, the priest added.
The Hindu boy, who came from the neighboring Champa district, had joined the hostel in the sixth grade.
Since Marawi’s eldest brother had completed his studies from the school, staying in the same hostel, the parents do not blame the institution for his suicide, the priest said.
However some anti-Christian political leaders, students’ unions affiliated to rightwing groups and media persons now try to implicate the institution, he added.
Jairamnagar, the oldest mission in the archdiocese of Raipur, had started the Hindi medium school with hostels for boys and girls in 1931 to educate the local Dalit children. Under Father Shuklal as the principal, the school had topped in the 12th board exams in Chhattisgarh state some years back. The school ranks among the best Hindi medium schools in the state.
The school runs both Hindi and English medium schools and nearly some 300 boys and girls even from far villages stay in the hostels. Over the years thousands of students have passed out of this institution and are well placed in society.