Family sages protest as student found hanging in Kathua

Kathua/Jammu, May 13 (PTI) Family members of a 20-year-old college student, who died by suicide, staged a protest and blocked the Jammu-Pathankot highway for nearly two hours on Saturday, demanding an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the youth’s death, officials said. The deceased identified as Arun Kumar, a final year student of Government Degree College from Pathankot, was found hanging in his hostel room in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, they said.

His body was shifted to Government Medical College in Kathua for postmortem, they said. The body of the deceased was handed over to his family for last rites on Saturday morning but they refused to accept it and later staged a sit-in at Lakhanpur, demanding an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the youth, they said.

Senior civil and police officers visited the protesters and persuaded them to disperse, assuring a fair investigation under inquest proceedings, the officials added.