IIT Madras Student Dies By Suicide, 4th Case This Year

New Delhi: A second-year undergraduate student at Indian Insititute of Technology (IIT) Madras died by suicide on Friday, news agency PTI quoted Chennai police as saying. According to a police officer, the student was found dead in his campus hostel room, and a case has been filed and an investigation is underway. "He did not respond, and then the door to the hostel room was broken open, and he was discovered hanging," the officer said. According to the officer, preliminary investigation revealed that the deceased student may have had some issues stemming from his love for a woman. On March 14, an IIT-Madras third-year B-Tech student died by suicide. On February 14, another IIT-M post-graduate engineering student died by suicide. He, too, was discovered dead in his hostel room.

"The body was taken for autopsy and a preliminary investigation is underway on the IIT Madras campus," news agency ANI quoted an officer of Chennai Police as saying.

The IIT-Madras, which conveyed its condolence to the bereaved, said: "We are deeply anguished to convey the untimely passing away of an undergraduate student from the Chemical Engineering Department in the afternoon of 21 April 2023 in his hostel room. The Institute has lost one of its own, and the professional community has lost a good student. The reason for the demise is unknown. Police are investigating. The parents have been informed." 

The Institute said it is taking all possible measures to proactively identify and help students under stress. "We will continue to keep strengthening these measures."

Fourth Suicide Case At IIT-Madras Since 2018

This is the fourth case of a student suicide reported this year from IIT Madras and the 12th since 2018. Earlier, on April 2, a PhD student of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, died by suicide in his room in Tamil Nadu`s Velachery, police told media. The student was a native of West Bengal and was aged 32.