Manjula Devak was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room at Nalanda Apartment inside IIT-Delhi campus
A woman research scholar of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room at Nalanda Apartment inside the campus. She has been Identified as Manjula Devak, a final year PhD student of the premier technical institute.
Police recovered her body on Tuesday evening, breaking open the door of her room as it was locked from inside. The police team immediately rushed her to a hospital where the doctors declared her dead. Police reached the spot after receiving a call from one of Manjula's friends from the Institute campus.
Manjula's friend called the police as she was neither answering any of the phone calls since morning nor opening the door of her room. She was last seen on Monday night, her friends told the police. Doctors conducted an autopsy on her body on Wednesday.
According to police, prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide. However, no suicide note was recovered from her room. While the police are investigating the case, a sub- divisional magistrate will also conduct an inquiry into the incident.
Manjula’s laptop and cell phone have been seized by the police for the purpose of investigation. Manjula, a resident of Indore district of Madhya Pradesh and a civil engineer, was pursuing PhD in water resources at the IIT-Delhi. She lived in the Nalanda Apartment with her husband Ritesh Virha who was in Indore when the incident took place. Manjula was married to Ritesh in 2013, police said.
Though the exact reasons behind Manjula's death were yet to be ascertained by the police, the incident took place barely a month after the IIT council discussed some recent cases of suicide by students at the IIT-Kharagpur and Kanpur. To check such incidents, the Council also decided to make its “induction programme” more “stronger” than what was introduced last year to help students cope up with stress. The meeting was chaired by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar.
The IIT-Delhi earlier this month initiated a move to revamp its curriculum to help students cope up with the pressure of their studies. The Institute, which has sought suggestions from its various department on the issue as part of the move, was hoping to introduce a revised curriculum from the next academic session.