IIT Madras Suicide : Students say that suicide wasn’t due to a relationship failure, wants probe

Fourth case of suicide in IIT Madras within a span on 70 days

Chennai

The friends of Kedar Suresh, the 20-year-old BTech student at the IIT Madras who was found dead on Friday, April 21, alleged that his death was not due to a failed relationship as claimed by the police. After Kedar was found dead in his hostel room, the Kotturpuram police in Chennai had said that it was a case of suspected suicide. Some reports claimed that the police’s initial probe revealed that the reason behind Kedar’s suicide was heartbreak due to a relationship. although students rebutting the such claim.

A student who attended a condolence meeting held on the IIT campus on Saturday told , “Kedar’s close friends openly told others at the condolence meeting that the reason for his death was not love failure. They said that they didn’t know of him being in any relationship at all.” The student added, “We are not sure of who has spun this narrative – the police or the institute. It feels like the blame was shifted to Kedar and his personal life to keep the institute’s reputation intact.”

One of Kedar’s close friends told that there was no mention of any girl or relationship in his suicide note. “In the note, he simply said that he is not the best person. We saw the media reporting about some failed relationship and we were baffled,” the friend said. “Even if there was a relationship that none of us (his close friends) knew of, it could not have been the only reason for his decision. His marks and grades were okay, there was no professor who was targeting him, there was no girl. It came down to him thinking that he was not the best,” the friend added.

Students who gathered at the condolence meeting added that the institute had put up several new flyers urging them to compete and be the best. “‘Why should you integrate, when you can stand out,’ said one of the flyers that I saw today,” a student said.

This is the fourth case of suicide in IIT Madras within a span on 70 days. On February 13, Steven, a second year research scholar from Maharashtra, was found dead in his hostel room. Vaipu Pushpak Sri Sai, a third year Electrical Engineering student from Andhra Pradesh, was found dead on March 14, and Sachin Kumar Jain, a PhD scholar from West Bengal, was found dead at his house in Velachery on March 31.