"Don't want to live life offered by another": Presidency College student says in voice note after killing self in Tirunindravur

A Presidency College student jumped in front of an express train near Tirunindravur railway station and ended his life on Tuesday night, shortly after releasing a voice note that he did not want to live the life offered out of sympathy by Pachaiyapppa's College students. 

The deceased, M Kumar, was a second year student of BA History and resident of Guruvarajapet near Arakkonam, said Tiruvallur railway police, who have registered a case about the suicide. 

While police initially could not confirm the identity of the deceased, the voice note he shared in the college group went viral after which parents and friends confirmed the deceased was Kumar. Police said that he jumped in front of the double decker train arriving at Chennai from Bengaluru around 8.40 pm, a few metres away from Tirunindravur railway station. 

Police suspect that the suicide could be a fallout of the perennial rivalry between the two college students over 'route thala' problem. For the uninitiated, route thala means the head of students travelling on a particular train or bus route and the past is riddled with bloody clashes between different groups of college students. 

It maybe recalled that Presidency College students staged a rail roke near Avadi and Hindu College railway stations after the Railway Protection Force personnel detained a their mate for celebrating birthday on the train by cutting cake surrounded by friends, as somebody pulled the chain during the celebration and brought the train to a halt. 

Police suspect that Kumar could have been harassed by Pachaiyapppa's College students during the incident after which he might have resorted to the extreme step. However, as Kumar did not name anybody in the voice note and not narrate what kind of harassment he went through, police are clueless as to how to take the investigation forward. 

Kumar's father runs a fancy shop and has another younger son, said police.