An on campus sexual assault led to a series of events that resulted in the purchase of cyanide via Amazon.
By Raif Karerat
The mother of an Indian American student who killed herself in 2013 with cyanide she allegedly purchased through Amazon.com has named both the University of Pennsylvania and the online retailer in a multi-pronged lawsuit.
Arya Singh, 20, a junior in the School of Nursing, died Feb. 8, 2013, after ingesting soluble cyanide crystals in her dorm room.
According to the report, Singh’s mother alleges in the lawsuit that the university was antagonistic toward Singh and didn’t provide her proper support in the wake of a sexual assault Singh had reported to authorities in 2011. The alleged assaulter wasn’t punished by the school, according to the suit, which was posted on Law360.
Sujata Singh is suing the school for negligence, claiming that professors and administrators ignored issues that her daughter was experiencing as a result of the alleged sexual assault.
Singh, a junior in the university’s nursing school who was from Allentown, Pa., faced difficulties in the years afterward that resulted in academic and misconduct investigations.
Singh’s grades plummeted, she was arrested for alcohol intoxication and was the subject of academic and misconduct investigations, according to the claim. But the suit claims “University employees’ conduct toward her was unsympathetic, hostile and at times, vindictive,” according to NBC News.
One university official allegedly wrote in an email that he had “no sympathy” for Arya and that “she deserves anything you dish out to her, reported the Daily Mail. “Sorry not more sympathetic … needless to say I will not be serving as her advisor,” the email continued, per the lawsuit.
According to NJ.com, Singh was ordered by a University employee to vacate the room the day she died, since the pending academic investigations lead to Singh being unable to register for classes and thus unable to live on campus. Hours later, she killed herself by ingesting soluble cyanide crystals purchased from Thailand via Amazon.
Amazon started preventing the sale of cyanide on Feb. 2, 2013, but by then it was too late to avoid fatalities. The lawsuit claims 51 other people purchased cyanide on Amazon before Singh, resulting in the deaths of 11 purchasers “within weeks of sale.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the complaint also names a citizen of Thailand and his company — which sold the cyanide to Singh through Amazon — as defendants in the case.