After Ruchika Mohanty, another Bhubaneswar college student dies by suicide

BHUBANESWAR: Close on the heels of BJB college student Ruchika Mohanty committing suicide because of alleged ragging, another girl studying MCA in a private college here was found hanging from a rope tied to the ceiling of her rented accommodation at Acharya Vihar here on Tuesday.
Depression over her personal life reportedly led 22-year-old Ashrita Senapati to take such an extreme step, police said.
Though the police seized a suicide note purportedly written by Senapati from her room, they did not disclose its contents.
“We are trying to ascertain the exact cause of her death. Her friends and family members will be questioned. No formal complaint has been received from her family yet,” deputy commissioner of police Prateek Singh said.
Senapati, who belonged to Tihidi area of Bhadrak district, was a first-year MCA student. She had been staying alone here. When she did not pick up her father’s phone calls in the morning, her family members asked the house owner to check whether she was present in her room. Repeated attempts by the house owner also went in vain as she did not open the door. Sensing foul play, the family members informed the police, who broke open the door and found her hanging.
The back-to-back deaths of Ruchika Mohanty (committed suicide on July 2) and Ashrita Senapati has turned the spotlight on the disturbing trend of a large number of students committing suicides in Odisha. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Odisha stood second after Maharashtra for reporting maximum number of student suicides in 2020. While 1,648 students had committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2020, Odisha was placed second with 1,469 suicides (1,042 males and 427 females) by students. At least 379 students had committed suicide in Odisha in 2019, 501 in 2018 and 361 in 2017, the NCRB report said.
“Prolonged battle with stress and the failure to withstand the stress always trigger suicidal tendency among people. It differs from person to person. In many cases, it drives people to end their lives,” Tapan Mohanty, a psychiatrist said.