(Trigger Warning: Description of violence and mentions of suicide. If you feel suicidal or know someone in distress, please reach out to them with kindness and call these numbers of local emergency services, helplines, and mental health NGOs If you or anyone you know.)
"It was only later that I found out that Sneha had written a complaint to the University. If the University would have taken some action at the time, or informed us, my daughter would have been alive," said Rajkumar Chaurasia, father of Sneha Chaurasia, who was shot dead, allegedly by her male classmate at Greater Noida's Shiv Nadar University on 18 May.
The Quint spoke to Sneha's father on Friday, a day after the police registered an FIR against the university and four others -- including Anuj Kumar, the student who allegedly killed her, before shooting himself dead.
The FIR was registered on 25 May under sections 302 (murder), 354D (stalking) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
‘He Gave Me Death Threats, Was Violent’: Sneha's Email to University Two Months Before She was Killed
On 14 March -- over two months before she was killed -- Sneha wrote an email to university authorities with the subject line ‘Informal Complaint Against Violence’. She alleged in the letter that Anuj was physically violent.
In the mail, a copy of which was accessed by The Quint, she wrote, “Due to some internal conflicts, I decided to break up with him. Despite many explanations and conversations, he is not ready to accept the break up.”
There were and there are scars on my body which are proof of the high level of violence that he has used. Also, once, he held my throat so hard that it choked me to an unconscious state. I am suffering from seriously bad mental health, I have started getting panic attacks due to all this. I genuinely want to get out of this. Today, he has given me an open death threat and said that he will call up my parents and tell them all about our relationship.Sneha Chaurasia in a mail to university authorities
'Put a Restraining Order on Both Students in March': Shiv Nadar University
She also added, “I just want to say that I don’t want to file an official complaint against him but I just want to make sure that in any manner, he is not reachable to me or my family.”
Regarding the email, the University said, "The University took this up very seriously and acted upon this immediately. All necessary steps including multiple interventions and professional counselling for both the students were resorted to."
The University said it had also put a "restraining order" on both the students on 16 March.
The University claimed that it had urged her to file a formal complaint. As per Shiv Nadar University's statement, "Within the constraints of the lack of a formal complaint and the expressed apprehensions about the reactions of the family, the University took all the possible actions to address the situation."
Who is Named in The FIR?
Prior to the incident that took place in the dining hall on campus on 18 May, Anuj had sent a purported video to his classmates, where he delved into the details of their alleged “relationship.” In the 23-minute-long purported video, he mentioned three men, who have have been named in the FIR as well.
In the complaint, Sneha’s father said, “Before killing my daughter, Anuj had recorded a video which went viral on social media. He mentioned Sneha’s murder in the video. In this video, Ashutosh Pandey (a University employee), Karan, and Kanpur resident Anshu, were mentioned. It is clear from these facts that my daughter was killed in a conspiracy. Another reason for the death was that the University did not take quick and effective action.”
Sneha's father had earlier told The Quint, "How is it that a student was roaming around with a weapon like that inside the University? It is such a big and renowned university... This should not have happened."
He also said that Sneha had never mentioned Anuj in any of her conversations with her family members.
After the FIR was filed, Sneha's father said, “The University should be held accountable for taking the complaint so lightly. The other three people have been named on the FIR on the basis of the video. We did not know anything about them.”
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