Protests erupted in Hyderabad late on Friday after a 23-year-old student, Marri Pravalika, was found dead at a private hostel in the city’s Ashok Nagar area, The Indian Express reported.
The police claimed that she died by suicide due to personal reasons. “She was upset with her boyfriend over their relationship. She died by suicide at around 8.30 pm after talking to him,” an unidentified police officer told the newspaper.
The 23-year-old student, a native of Telangana’s Warangal, left behind a note, police said.
However, the protestors, many of whom were students, claimed the woman ended her life because she was upset about not being able to find a job and the postponement of the Group-2 examination by Telangana State Public Service Commission, PTI reported.
On October 11, the Telangana State Public Service Commission had rescheduled the Group 2 examination from November 2 and 3 to January 6 and 7, 2024, citing the Assembly elections in the state. This was the second time the examination had been postponed in a year.
Telangana will head for polling in the Assembly polls on November 30.
The protestors raised slogans seeking justice and blocked traffic for some time on Friday night, according to The Hindu. They also tried to stop the police from shifting the woman’s body to the hospital.
Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan directed the director general of police, the chief secretary and the state’ Public Service Commission secretary to submit a report on the matter within 48 hours.
BJP MP K Laxman blamed the state’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi government for the death. “She was diligently preparing for [government] examinations since many months,” Laxman said in a social media post. “But due to repeated cancellations and postponements of exams by the BRS Govt, she has taken such extreme step.”
Laxman said that this showed “total failure” of the Telangana government’s duty “towards the unemployed youth”. “I demand justice for … Pravallika and also to countless others affected by this sheer negligence of the Telangana State Government,” he added.
He said on social media platform X that he demanded that the woman’s suicide letter be made public but was “arrested”.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said he was “shocked and deeply anguished” to know about the student’s death.
“Thousands of young aspirants in Telangana are frustrated and enraged due to the rank apathy of the BRS Govt in conducting examinations,” Kharge wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “Youngsters of Telangana hold the corrupt, inept and inefficient BRS Govt accountable and will oust it from power in the state.”
The Congress called for statewide protests.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Telangana’s youth had been “completely devastated by unemployment”.
“In the last 10 years, BJP Rishtedar Samithi - BRS and BJP together have ruined the state with their incompetence,” Gandhi said on Saturday. “The Congress government in Telangana will release job calendar, reorganise TSPSC on the lines of UPSC in 1 month and fill 2 lakh vacant government posts within a year - this is a guarantee.”
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