IIT Madras student allegedly died by suicide in his hostel room

On Tuesday, March 14, a BTech student named V Vaipu Pushpak Sree Sai, who was in his third-year of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras, was found dead in his hostel room in Alaknanda. The 20-year-old from Andhra Pradesh reportedly died by suicide. When he did not attend his classes, his friends went to his room to check on him around 11.30 am, according to the police. "The door was locked from inside following which the students broke open the door to find Sree Sai dead," a senior police officer said, as reported by The New Indian Express.

The body of the student pursuing BTech at IIT Madras was sent to the government hospital in Royapettah for post-mortem by the Kotturpuram police, who registered a case after he allegedly died by suicide in his hostel room. Despite conducting a search, the police did not find any suicide note in the room. In response to Sree Sai’s death, IIT Madras issued a statement acknowledging that the environment has been challenging since the COVID-19 pandemic began. "A standing institute internal inquiry committee including elected student representatives, which has been constituted recently, will look into such incidents," the management added stated a report by The New Indian Express.

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In another incident, on February 14, Stephen Sunny, a research scholar from Maharashtra, reportedly died by suicide in his hostel room at IIT Madras.

(Assistance for those with suicidal thoughts is available on the state health department’s helpline 104 and on Sneha's suicide prevention helpline at 044-24640050)