Suicide drama at Ahmedabad professor’s doorstep

At Sola civil hospital's emergency ward a middle-aged woman lies with her nose attached to a feeding tube. She folds her hands and requests mediapersons not to take her picture. She breaks down repeatedly and pleads not to write anything about her. Hours after the incident that brought her to the emergency ward, not a single acquaintance of hers has visited her. She refuses to talk to even the two policemen who offer her help. Sometimes she exclaims, "I want to talk to Prajapati!"

In an extraordinary incident in the heart of Ahmedabad's academia, Vishakha Acharya (named changed), aged 40, reportedly attempted to take her own life on the doorstep of the house of her Phd guide, Pradeep Prajapati, a suspended lecturer of Gujarat University. She reportedly drank a poisonous liquid after a brawl with Prajapati's family on Tuesday morning at around 9:30.

"We got a call from a person named Pradeep Prajapati. He said that he wanted to lodge an FIR as a woman tried to end her life in front of his house. He had not called up the emergency service (108) by then. However, when we reached the spot, the woman was taken to the Sola civil hospital for treatment after someone close to the lecturer told him to send her for treatment," said a police official.

As the extraordinary happening unfolded, it came to light that Vishakha, a resident of Mangaldeep apartments near Jeevraj Park, had submitted her PhD thesis this year to Prajapati who happens to be her guide. Vishaka is a divorcee and has been living alone since she separated from her husband eight years back.

Prajapati, who resides in Shanti apartments, Satellite, was a lecturer in the Economics department of Gujarat University who had been suspended a couple of days back. According to sources, Vishakha and Prajapti know each other for the last eight years.

The incident took a dramatic turn when the woman refused to talk to police. After hours of waiting, the Vastrapur cops finally dispatched a woman constable to secure the woman, but that attempt too failed. All she said was that eight years back her husband left her alone and she is waging a fight against her in-laws in the court.

The police have registered the complaint as a non-cognisable crime.