IIT-K student hangs self in hostel room

Kanpur: A third year B.Tech student at IIT Kanpur was found dead Wednesday morning inside his hostel room with officials at the institute saying that the case appeared to be one of suicide.

Officials at the premier technological institute said that the deceased student, identified as Manjunath (20), had been suffering from depression and was even taking assistance for the same. This is the second instance at IIT, Kanpur, this year of a student being found dead under mysterious circumstances.

On January 1, the body of a second year B.Tech student hailing from Andhra Pradesh was found near railway tracks here. Manjunath, who was enrolled in the computer science stream, had lost use of his legs due to polio. He hailed from Raichur district of Karnataka.

IIT, Kanpur, Registrar RK Sachan said that the boy had lost his father in his childhood while, a few months back, his sister also passed away. Sachan said that some poisonous substance has been found in Manjunath's room with the preliminary post-mortem report also pointing at the likelihood of death due to poisoning.

Sachan added that the boy's mother had been informed about the tragedy while a committee has been set up to investigate the death.