IIT-Kharagpur alumnus kills self on campus

KHARAGPUR: An IIT Kharagpur alumnus visiting his batchmate, a faculty member, reportedly committed suicide by jumping off the three-storey main building of the institute on Monday afternoon. Victim

Sandip

Prasad (53), a computer science engineer of the 1986 batch, had come to the campus 10 days back to meet his batchmate Amitabha Bhattacharya, now a professor at his alma mater.

According to sources,

Prasad

had given up his job in the US four years ago and since then he has been travelling across the world, looking for an opening. He was also to get enrolled for a PhD course at IIT Kha ragpur. A bachelor, Prasad lived with his parents in Ranchi.

Sandip was staying at the IIT Kharagpur guest house since his arrival on campus. Sources said around 1.30 pm on Monday, Sandip climbed to the terrace of IIT's main building and jumped. Alerted by the thud, people immediately rushed to the spot and took him to the BC Roy Technology Hospital, which is on the campus. Prasad was declared dead by the doctors there.

West Midnapore SP

Bharati Ghosh

said, “The victim is suspected to have commit ted suicide. His body has been sent for autopsy but we have started a suicide case.“ Investigators questioned Sandip's friend Bhattacharya and recorded his statement.It read: “Sandip had resigned from his job in the US four years ago. He was roaming the world looking for a purpose and was also thinking of enrolling for a PhD. I suspect he was suffering from depression.“

IIT Kharagpur registrar Pradip Pyne said: “The victim Sandip Prasad was a 1986 batch alumnus of our institute. He was visiting the campus for the last 10 days. Many alumni come on such visits but it is not known who all he came to meet and so it is difficult to specify the purpose of his visit.How can I answer that if I don't know?.“