Troubled by the closure of their studies, students of a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur have written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, seeking his permission for euthanasia.

According to a report in Hindustan Times' sister publication Livehindustan, the students, in their letter to President Kovind, said that the city-based Glocal Medical College admitted 66 students for its MBBS course in 2016. However, just three months later, the Medical Council of India (MCI) de-recognised the institute, they added.

The college management kept them in the dark about this, and continued the course for five years, the letter claimed, adding that after exercising all possible options, including moving the Allahabad high court, the students are hopeless, and, therefore, seek to end their lives.

Of the 66 students, as many as 12 have written to President Kovind. Some of them are Shivam Verma, Shivani Rana, Vibhor, Rizwan, Sadaf, Samia, Vignesh, Rahul Raj, Aishwarya, Arvind Raj.

Responding to these allegations, Glocal University vice chancellor Akeel Ahmed claimed that though the college wants the students to complete their degree, it was, in fact, on the appeal of these students that the MCI cancelled the No Objection Certificate (NOC) granted to it. “They filed a writ petition in the high court, and then in the Supreme Court. On both occasions, the plea was dismissed. Despite this, we continue to stand with our students,” Ahmed said.