Dalit student of IIT-Kanpur ends life in hostel room

LUCKNOW: A dalit student, Bhim Singh, enrolled in the third year of PhD programme (course) in mechanical engineering department of IIT-Kanpur, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his Hall 8 hostel room on the institute campus on Wednesday.

On getting the information, local Kalyanpur police reached the hostel and broke the door of his room open to bring the body down. Taking the body into their possession, the police will wait for the parents of the deceased before sending it for post-mortem examination on Thursday.

According to police sources, the students who belonged to Faridabad in Narayana, near national capital Delhi, hanged himself from the ceiling of his room through his bedsheet. Police said that deceased had done his BTech from NIT, Warangal and had joined PHd course at IIT-Kanpur in 2015.

While the cause of suicide is not clear, the police found an alleged suicide note in the room. The note was reportedly torn into pieces, but was collected by the forensics team. Institute’s director Prof Manindra Agarwal said the reason for his suicide was not clear. "A letter, which appears to be a suicide note, has been recovered and is now in in the possession of the forensic team of the polic," said Agarwal.

“It is not clear when did the student commit suicide. The exact time of his death would be known after postmortem examination,” he added.

SHO Kalyanpur Satish Kumar Singh said that the parents of the victim were informed and they were expected on Thursday. "Only after the parents' arrival, the body will be sent for post mortem," he said.