Hours after watching 3 idiots,student commits suicide in school bathroom

Sushant had watched 3 Idiots for the second time on Sunday night and police suspect the movie could have been partly responsible for Sushant taking the extreme step.

Sushant arrived in the school,which is well-known as cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli studied there,as usual around 7 am and after keeping his bag in his classroom,went to the adjacent toilet-cum-bathroom. When the teacher began taking attendance,he wasn’t back. After the first period,the teacher sent some students to find him. They found the bathroom bolted from inside,” said assistant commissioner of police (ACP) M Sankhe of the Dadar police division.

“Peeping through a crack on the door,his classmates were shocked to see a pair of legs dangling and called their teacher who found Sushant’s body hanging by a nylon cord tied to a water valve above. He contacted Sushant’s father Eknath Patil,who owns a medicine store in Lower Parel. Patil rushed to the spot and brought down the body,” said Sankhe.

“He had failed in four subjects in his mid-semester exam whose results were declared before Christmas. He had apparently not even let his father know. Patil learnt about it from teachers only when he came to take his son’s body. Patil told us his son had never been good at studies but never seemed really bothered by his low grades. Like any other father he would scold him about his marks but he had never taken him that seriously,” said a police official from the Dadar police station.

Preliminary police investigations reveal that 3 Idiots could have goaded Sushant to take the extreme step.

“He watched the movie twice,the second time on Sunday night for which he was mildly reprimanded by Patil. His father confirmed that Sushant watched the movie a few days back at home and had put it on again on Sunday evening. In fact,according to Patil,he seemed depressed after watching it. But he hadn’t discussed anything about school or exams before going to bed,” said the official who added that they will probe whether the boy had discussed the movie or shared concerns about his grades with any friend or family member.

“He (Patil) feels guilty about having reprimanding him for watching the movie on Sunday. Sushant was never tense,especially not about studies. A happy-go-lucky student,he was average at studies. But Patil neither yelled at him nor insisted he had high expectations. In fact,he would say that even if Sushant never excelled in studies,he would not starve as the family had a huge farm in their native village and the shop,” said Geeta More,a relative of ,Sushant,adding that he may have merely wanted to enact the said scene from the movie.

On Monday,the school also had a tough time handling anxious parents outside the school.

At a press conference held in the school,school trustee Srinivas Nerulkar and principal Sumati Kamble said the suicide was not related to his marks. “The school had reopened on Saturday and he was normal then. We usually counsel students who fail but such incidents are isolated and are a result of individual decisions. It’s difficult to prevent such cases,” said Nerulkar.

Three suicides in just over 24 hours
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Bhajan Preet Bhuller,an 18-year-old student of D Y Patil College in Nerul allegedly committed suicide in her residence at Powai on Saturday night. She was reportedly depressed over her poor performance in the second semester of the physiotherapy course. The police claimed that the girl had failed in three out of six subjects in her second semester and that might have prompted her to take the extreme step.

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