A 20-year-old dental student of Sharda University, Greater Noida, was found dead in her hostel room on Friday night, said an Uttar Pradesh police officer.

“A girl student of Sharda University died by suicide in the university hostel. A police team reached the spot and got the post-mortem conducted,” said Sudhir Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida).

The police officer said a note has been recovered from her hostel room, in which she alleged “mental duress” she had been put through by two of her teachers.

“If I die, the teachers of the Pre-Clinical Prosthodontics and Dental Materials departments are to blame… They mentally harassed me. They humiliated me. I have been under stress because of them for a long time,” read the note allegedly left by her.

She was in her second year of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS).

Following the family’s complaint, the police lodged an FIR under relevant sections of the law against five accused. “Five persons have been named in the FIR, out of which two persons have been taken into custody for questioning,” Mr. Kumar said.

Directions to university

“We have asked the university to implement the necessary standard operating procedures to ensure that such incidents don’t recur,” he added.

The deceased’s brother told the media that his sister consistently complained about being “targeted by the two professors”. He said his father had approached the Head of the Department (HOD) of the BDS programme to raise the concerns, but in vain. “My father visited the campus on July 14 and met the HOD. We last spoke to my sister on Thursday. After that, we didn’t hear anything from her. My sister’s batchmates had told us she was humiliated in the class and her teachers had threatened to fail her,” the deceased’s brother said.

Soon after hearing about her death on Friday night, the deceased’s mother sat in protest on campus demanding justice for her daughter and stringent punishment for the accused.

“I’ve been sitting here since Friday night. I will not leave until my daughter gets justice. I won’t move,” she said.

The deceased’s mother said despite raising concerns, the HOD “failed to take any action” against the accused teachers. In one of the purported videos of the protest, the mother can be seen slapping the HOD when he came to console her.

Several batchmates of the deceased and other students joined her mother and staged a protest. The deceased student’s brother claimed that they were holding a peaceful protest, yet the police “lathi-charged several students”. There was no response from the police to the accusation.

A police officer said the family left the campus on Saturday evening to return to their home in Gurugram, Haryana.

In a statement, Sharda University announced that a high-level inquiry committee has been constituted to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident and to recommend institutional measures. “The university is fully cooperating with statutory authorities,” a spokesperson said.

‘Second such case’

The incident drew sharp criticism from the Opposition parties.

Congress Lok Sabha member Priyanka Vadra Gandhi took to X, saying, “First, a female student in Odisha was forced to take her own life, and now a similar tragic incident has come to light at Sharda University in Greater Noida. A female student took her own life, alleging harassment by teachers. Are our educational institutions not safe for our children? How will they dream of a better life in a place where life itself is not secure?”

Ms. Vadra urged the Centre to take cognisance of these cases, ensure strict action, and take concrete steps to prevent such incidents from recurring on any campus.

The Trinamool Congress, in a post of X, said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Bengal to preach about women’s safety, while in Yogi Adityanath’s U.P., a BDS student died by suicide after being subjected to mental harassment and humiliation at the hands of two faculty members.”

(Those in distress may contact Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health suicide prevention helpline 011-40769002)