Fourth student suicide this year at campus triggers alarm

Kolkata: A fourth-year student of IIT Kharagpur was found dead in his hostel room on Friday, triggering widespread concern as this marks the fourth such incident on the campus this year.

The deceased, identified as Ritam Mondal (21), was a resident of Regent Park in Kolkata and a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student. He was staying in Room No. 203 of the IIT Kharagpur hostel.

According to sources, Mondal was unresponsive to phone calls from his friends on Friday morning. When some students went to check on him, he did not answer despite repeated knocks on the door. Sensing something was amiss, they alerted the IIT administration, which in turn informed the police.

Police later broke open the door and found Mondal hanging from the ceiling fan. He was immediately rushed to the campus hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Investigators suspect suicide, possibly due to depression, though his friends reportedly told police they had not noticed any such signs in his behaviour. It was learnt that Mondal had recently returned to the campus after a visit home.

The incident has sparked tension and concern among students and faculty, especially since this is the fourth student death by suicide at IIT Kharagpur this year. In January, Shaon Malik, a third-year Electrical Engineering student, was found hanging in his hostel room. In April, Aniket Walker, a final-year Ocean Engineering student from Maharashtra, was found dead in similar circumstances. In May, Md. Asif Qamar, a third-year Civil Engineering student from Bihar, also died by suicide in his hostel room.

Police have launched an investigation into the latest case.