KARACHI: While police did not find any sign of murder behind the death of a private medical university student and closed the investigation two days after he allegedly immolated himself on the campus, his family and friends on Wednesday evening staged a protest demonstration on Shahrah-i-Quaideen against the police findings.

The Karachi-West DIG said the police investigation team comprising the Nazimabad DSP and the Taimuria SHO arrived at the conclusion that the final-year medical student, Abdul Basit Siddiqi, had killed himself after being refused to sit an exam while he had already been suffering from depression due to his repeated failure in examinations since 2008.

The officer said the probe body had been constituted on a written request of the deceased’s brother.

However, the protesting friends and family of the student rejected the police findings. “Not a single policeman has come to us,” the deceased’s brother Abdul Majid Siddiqui said. “How can the police close the case and declare it suicide without hearing and satisfying us?

“It’s all being done to protect the university management and their wrongdoings,” he alleged.

Giving details of the investigation report, the DIG said the student had arrived at the main campus of Hamdard University near Manghopir at around 1:30pm while the paper timing was between 11am and 1pm. He did not reach on time as his vehicle broke down on his way to the varsity. The student met Prof Abrar there, requesting him to allow him to take the exam but the teacher did not entertain his request, as answer scripts had already been sealed by that time.

Then the student proceeded to the varsity’s campus in North Nazimabad where he called on the vice principal of the medical and dental college, Nadeem Khokhar, and made an identical request, which was also not entertained on account of being very late.

He became depressed over the refusal. He went outside the college. While he was returning to the campus, a watchman noticed that there was smell of petrol from his clothes, said the DIG while quoting the watchman. In the meantime, vice principal of the college Khokhar along with other staff went upstairs to the rooftop of the under-construction building.

All of a sudden, the student set himself on fire on the college premises. Four students present on the first floor of the building rushed to save his life. Quoting statements of the four students, the officer said they (students) saw a lighter in Basit’s hand. They tried to put out the fire by throwing dust on him. They also removed his burnt clothes. Later, the students rushed him to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in a private car. As the hospital did not have a proper facility to treat burn victims, he was referred to the burns centre of the Civil Hospital Karachi where he died during treatment as he had suffered over 86 per cent burn wounds, according to the DIG.

He said the investigators recorded statements of two watchmen and seven students including the three students who had made telephone contact with Basit from the main campus of the varsity to inform him that he was late.

He quoted the students as telling the police that Basit was emotionally disturbed as he had been failing the examinations for the past four years. In the annual examination 2014-15, Basit was declared unsuccessful in all his papers. He had got admission to the college in the year 2008.

Meanwhile, family members and friends of the deceased student staged a protest on the main Shahrah-i-Quaideen and rejected the police findings insisting that Basit had not committed suicide but it was a ‘deliberate murder’.

Carrying placards and portraits of Basit, they chanted slogans against the police authorities and blamed them for closing the case without hearing their grievances and reservations. They said the police were attempting to protect the university management.

“We will not give up,” they said. “That’s why we are here to demand that the chief justice, Rangers DG and Sindh governor take notice of the incident for the sake of justice.”

The protest led to a traffic jam on the main road for more than an hour. The situation turned normal only after the police intervened and convinced the protesting friends and family members to disperse peacefully.

The DIG said the police conducted the inquiry under Section 174 of the criminal procedure code as ‘suspicions’ about the student’s death were raised by the family but the investigators did not find any proof to substantiate their claims. “Therefore, no FIR will be registered,” he said.

He added that if the family had any proof, they could provide it to the police who would look into it. The officer admitted that the police station concerned had received an entry from the CHK but the police were not able to record his statement. He also admitted that the varsity had not installed closed-circuit television cameras on its campus in North Nazimabad.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2016