Student suicide rates are on a spike now. A 31-year-old doctorate student of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) allegedly died by suicide at his residence in Velachery on Friday, March 31. The deceased was identified as Sachin Kumar Jain who is a native of West Bengal pursuing PhD in the Mechanical Engineering Department, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
Further details
The deceased was staying in a rented apartment in Velachery for the past three months. He was staying with two others — Devkush (28) and Devaraj (28), who are also pursuing their PhD in IIT-M. On Friday, March 31, the three of them left for the institute as usual. However, Sachin returned home early. Around noon, Sachin posted a status on his WhatsApp stating he was not good enough and that he was sorry and also relayed the message to some of his friends, police investigation revealed.
When Devkush reached home, Sachin was found unconscious after which he was moved to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead. Velachery Police registered a case and moved the body to a hospital for postmortem.
Going back...
Two weeks back, a 20-year-old BTech student at IIT-Madras died by suicide in his hostel room on the campus. The deceased was identified as V Vaipu Pushpak Sree Sai from Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, a month ago, an MS research scholar from Maharashtra, Stephen Sunny, died by suicide on February 14 while another student was admitted to a hospital after attempting suicide.
If in distress or having suicidal thoughts, call 104 for the health department’s helpline that offers counselling or 044-24640050 for the Sneha suicide helpline.