Mohammad Raafi
SRINAGAR
The students, family and some faculty members of J&K State Board of Technical Education (JKSTE) Tuesday held a massive protest demonstration in Srinagar, demanding immediate arrest of the teacher, who “compelled Adnan Hilal Gilkar to commit a suicide due to his personal issues, bias and ego”.
The protesting students, both male and female, and faculty members, carrying banners and marks cards of Adnan, pitched slogans against JKSTE and demanded stern action against the teacher involved. Trhe protesters demanded CM Mufti Sayeed’s intervention in the case.
Distressed after being declared failed in physics, a 17-year-old electronics engineering student at Gogjibagh Government Polytechnic College in Srinagar had committed suicide in Jammu and Kashmir but four months after, a re-evaluation found that he not only passed the subject but topped his class.
The “cruel” evaluation process has left the parents of Adnan Hilal numb, who feel that it is not a case of suicide but “murder” as their son actually secured 48 marks in Physics and not 28 as declared earlier. He had bagged around 70 per cent aggregate marks in the first semester of the course, making him topper in the class. However, it took authorities four long months to realise Adnan’s correct score.
Hilal Ahmad Gilkar, Adnan’s father while talking to Kashmir Life said, “My son’s death is not a suicide but a murder as he was forced to take the extreme step by the cruelty of some people in the system,” said the grieving father, welling up. “It is a murder and people responsible for it need to be identified and acted against as per the service rules of the government.”
President Teachers Forum, Showkat Ahmad Bhat, who was part of the protest, said that Adnan’s death is “case of revenge”.
“How is it possible to declare a student ‘fail’, who is a topper,” Bhat said. “This is a case of personal ego. The teacher involved must be questioned.”
A student and classmate of Adnan said the teacher involved had some personal problems with the teacher. “Adnan would often pose some uncomfortable questions in the class and the teacher usually would not be able to answer him. Embarrassingly, he would often harass him and threat him of failing in the exams.”
