A third-year student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur was found dead in his hostel room on Friday, October 14. The student's body was found partially decomposed after authorities forced open his hostel door, which was bolted from the inside, an official from IIT Kharagpur told PTI.
As per the report by PTI, the Registrar of IIT Kharagpur, Tamal Nath, said that the "putrefying" body of the student, Fainaz Ahmed, was discovered only after his hostel room was forced open, since there had been no communication from him for hours. Fainaz, a 23-year-old third-year student of Mechanical Engineering, was last seen on October 13, his friends told PTI. He hailed from Assam's Tinsukia district.
Parents claim son was murdered
The student's parents have alleged that their son was murdered and have demanded a full-fledged enquiry by the police into the incident, as per the PTI report. The parents said that Ahmed had a brilliant academic record and performed well in exams as well. "Our son who was so jovial during the family event, cannot kill himself. He was murdered. We demand that a proper inquiry be held into the events leading to his death and how he died," his mother told a Bengali TV channel.
No foul play: IIT Kharagpur's stance
On the other hand, the institute has said that the authorities were not expecting any foul play in the death of the student, according to a statement given by an IIT Kharagpur official to PTI. The institute's Registrar, Nath, has also claimed that the institute provides requisite mental health support to its students.
"We are at a loss as to why such a thing happened. He had returned from his home only a few days ago after a family function and he was a senior," said the Registrar to PTI, adding, "The institute has a number of trained personnel as well as from two NGOs to provide counselling if anyone is depressed. For the past two years due to COVID-19 curbs and lockdown, we have given more stress on counselling to students to address any crisis if we get the slightest hint of any symptom."
Deaths at IITs
The incident at IIT Kharagpur is the second death reported from an IIT this week. It was only on Monday, October 10, that a student of IIT Guwahati was found dead inside his hostel room, apparently by suicide. IIT Guwahati had said in a statement that a 20-year-old fifth-year BTech student had been asked to vacate his hostel room after the student was terminated from his course due to "poor academic performance".
That had been the second case of death by suicide at IIT Guwahati in October. In September, IITs Kanpur, Hyderabad and Madras reported instances of students dying by suicide.