Kolkata/Kharagpur: A third-year IIT Kharagpur student died after reportedly falling from the eighth-floor terrace of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence on Saturday. Preliminary findings hinted at suicide, police said. Jayveersinh Dodiya (21) is the eighth Kharagpur campus student to die in the past 15 months.The Nehru Hall of Residence boarder from Ahmedabad was a student of a five-year dual-degree (BTech and MTech) course in manufacturing science and engineering in the mechanical engineering department. The death coincided with end-semester exams that, too, started on Saturday. Dodiya had an exam slated for Sunday and he reportedly studied with his friends till early on Saturday. Police said around 9.15 am, some staff members heard a loud thud and rushed outside to find a bleeding Dodiya lying unconscious with severe injuries in front of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee hostel. They alerted the security, police and the medical team. “Dodiya was taken to the Emergency at BC Roy Technology Hospital, where, upon examination, he was declared deceased. Dodiya’s family has been informed,” read the institute’s press statement.Police said, “Preliminary findings suggest Dodiya died by suicide but formal statements will be issued only after an autopsy is completed at Midnapore Medical College Hospital on Sunday and his family arrives. We will examine the CCTV footage to see when he left the Nehru Hall of Residence. CCTV footage shows he entered Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall between 8.45 am and 9 am but we are checking how he accessed the terrace. We will check his call records,” said a district police officer, adding they had seized Dodiya’s glasses and clothes. A campus insider said the hostel terraces were kept shut but the one at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall might have been opened for some work.An atmosphere of sorrow hung over the Kharagpur campus with students and faculty members struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss. Dodiya had a good academic record and was involved in the Business Club at the institute. “Dodiya was a student of manufacturing science and engineering with specialisation in industrial and systems engineering. He had no backlog, his overall CGPA was around 7.7 and in the last semester, his CGPA rose to around 8. As he was a dual-degree student, he did not face any stress over internship and placement,” said a campus insider. “Academic load has anyway been reduced by keeping 30-mark papers for two hours.”Dean of student well-being Arun Chakraborty said at a time, when the institute was making efforts to ensure students’ welfare, the incident shattered them. “There is no record of the student visiting the counselling centre or taking help from mental health experts on the campus. He did not have any exam on Saturday, he was to appear for a test on Sunday. His friends said he studied with them till late at night and that they had no clue when he left the hostel,” Chakraborty said.Among the measures taken to help students are the AI-driven mental wellness initiative SETU, creating the post of dean of student well-being, restructuring the counselling centre, forming a students’ task force at hostels, holding stress management workshops, recruiting mental health experts as wellness buddies at hostels at night and introducing life skills and joy and success courses.
