IIT-Hyderabad student from Odisha died by suicide in hostel room; 4th suicide in a year

Hyderabad: A 21-year-old post-graduate student of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) was found dead in her hostel room on the campus at Sangareddy district in Telangana on Monday. She was a first-year PG student who joined the Master’s programme in civil engineering on July 26, less than two weeks ago.

Sangareddy (rural) sub-inspector of police M Rajesh Naik said, “She was found hanging in her room by some students at about 10 pm and they immediately alerted the police. We recovered a suicide note from her room in which the student scribbled a two-line statement in Odia, saying that nobody was responsible for her death and that she was under severe mental pressure.”

The body was sent to the Sangareddy government hospital for postmortem and her parents were informed.

This is the second instance of a student at IIT-H ending their life by suicide in the past three weeks, making it a total of four such incidents for the year 2022-2023. Seven students had ended their lives on the campus so far.

The list of four students includes:

- Rahul Kya from Nandyala district, AP, who hanged himself on August 31.

- Meg Kapoor, an IIT alumnus from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, who jumped from atop a lodge on September 6.

- Karthik from Miryalaguda, Nalgonda district, Telangana was found dead off-campus on July 17.

- Mamata Naik, a student from Odisha, who hanged herself in her room on August 8.

These incidents have understandably raised concerns among parents about their children’s well-being. The series of suicides has sparked discussions about the pressures being faced by students at the prestigious institute. Some students struggling under the pressure of studies can sometimes resort to extreme measures like suicide.

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