A day after K Kiran Chandra, a fourth-year student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur was found dead in his hostel room, his parents have held a section of the institute's faculty responsible for their son's apparent suicide. Today, Thursday, October 19, they alleged that Kiran was forced to take the extreme step owing to "unnecessary" pressure from the faculty.
This morning, the victim's father and uncle arrived at IIT Kharagpur from their home state Telangana, and claimed that Kiran was under tremendous pressure from a section of the faculty over the completion of a project within a specific period. "The institute authorities could have informed us if Kiran was lagging somewhere. Unable to bear the pressure, our son resorted to the extreme step," the victim’s father said, as mentioned in a report by IANS.
However, Kiran's father and uncle confirmed that they will not be initiating any legal proceedings against the IIT Kharagpur authorities as it would not bring back the victim. Meanwhile, the institute has also confirmed the death as "suicide" in a statement issued by it.
Since last year, the institution has been in the news headlines because of mysterious deaths of students within its campus. In June this year, a student named Suriya Dipen was found dead on the campus. Previously, in October 2022, a student named Faizan Ahmed died under mysterious circumstances. In his case too, the body was recovered from a hostel room. The matter had reached the Calcutta High Court, as per IANS.
