The police said the 20-year-old was an Electrical Engineering student hailing from the Medak district and was found dead by his hostelmates.
Published Oct 18, 2023 | 9:23 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 19, 2023 | 2:27 PM
The police have registered a case of unnatural death under CrCP Section 174 and sent Kiran’s body for postmortem. (Creative Commons)
In a case of suspected suicide, a 20-year-old engineering student from Telangana was found dead at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur on the night of Tuesday, 17 October.
While the police said they were investigating the matter, the college administration claimed that the student had chosen the “path of self-harm”.
The deceased was identified as K Kiran Chandra, a resident of Sujith Tanda in Toopran mandal of the Medak district in Telangana. He was a fourth-year student in the Electrical Engineering branch.
The police said Kiran was found unresponsive by his hostelmates, after which he was rushed to the hospital within the IIT-Kharagpur campus.
“But he was declared dead on arrival,” Rajib Kumar Pal, inspector of the Kharagpur Town Police Station, told South First.
He added, “Prima facie, it appears that the student died by suicide. We are investigating the matter further. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination.”
The police have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and have sent Kiran’s body to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Chandra’s brother, Pawan, also studies in the same institution. His parents, father Chander and mother Anita are teachers at a government and a private school, respectively.
In a statement, the IIT Kharagpur management said, “With a sense of utter shock, the students, staff, and faculty members of IIT Kharagpur deeply mourn the sudden demise of K Kiran Chandra, a fourth-year dual degree student in the Department of Electrical Engineering.”
It added, “He was a boarder of the Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hall of Residence and chose the path of self-harm on the night of 17 October, 2023.”
The institute claimed that Kiran was with two of his roommates in their hostel room till about 7.30 pm.
“The other two students left for academic activities. Subsequently, around 8.30 pm, fellow boarders of the LBS Hall found his room locked from the inside. The door was forced open and he was found,” it further stated.
“The security and other students brought him to the BC Roy Technology Hospital immediately. Despite all efforts by the doctors, Kiran was declared dead around 11.30 pm,” said the IIT Kharagpur statement.
Since 2022, IIT Kharagpur has witnessed multiple deaths of students on campus.
In October last year, 23-year-old Faizan Ahmed, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student from Assam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances within the campus.
The matter reached the Calcutta High Court, which ordered a second postmortem, for which the body was exhumed from the cemetery. The court observed that it was a case of ragging.
Faizan’s mother had reportedly said that she was a bit relieved that Faizan did not die by suicide and that the stigma had not stuck to him.
In June of this year, the institute witnessed another tragedy when a student named Suriya Dipen, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. The police finally ruled the incident as a suicide.
According to data from the Education Ministry in December 2021, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have seen 34 suicides since 2014, with 18 of these cases involving students from the Other Backward Classes and the Scheduled Caste communities.
As per the ministry figures, six students in India take their own lives daily due to academic pressures.
From 2014 to October 2022, 15 students from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana reportedly died by suicide within the IITs.
In December 2019, the Minister of Human Resource Development informed Parliament that in the five years leading up to 2019, there were 60 student suicides reported in the IITs and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
Of these, 23 IITs accounted for 50 student suicides, while 20 IIMs reported 10 student suicides.
IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, and IIT Hyderabad had the highest number of student suicides during that five-year period ending in 2019.
(If you need support or know someone who has suicidal thoughts, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist or contact the helpline numbers of suicide prevention organisations that can offer emotional support to individuals and families. Tele-MANAS: 14416; Life Suicide Prevention: 7893078930; Roshni: 9166202000, 9127848584.)