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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

IIT Madras Student Found Hanging in His Hostel Room - NDTV


IIT Madras Student Found Hanging in His Hostel Room   Reported by J Sam Daniel Stalin
Edited by Deepshikha Ghosh
Updated: September 22, 2015 21:15 IST

A student of IIT Madras was found hanging in his hostel room

CHENNAI:  On Monday, Nagendra Reddy, a student of IIT Madras, returned to the campus after meeting his parents in a village in Andhra Pradesh. Hours later, he was found hanging in his room.

The 23-year-old, who was completing his master's degree, was the only child of Narayana Reddy, a farmer in Cuddapah.

"He came to visit us on Saturday and returned to Chennai on Monday. He never told us about any pressure," Mr Reddy said.  He was stunned when he received a call from the IIT, so soon after seeing him off.

No suicide note has been found, say the police.

The police suspect Nagendra was depressed after he failed to ace the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering or GATE conducted by the institute for doctorate programmes or jobs in leading public sector units.

He had reportedly been offered a job by engineering conglomerate L&T, but was looking for a government job.

In his first attempt at the test, he placed 2,013 and he later improved it to 722. But for the job that he wanted, he needed to make it to the top 200.

IIT Madras said in a statement that it was not known why Nagendra took his own life.

"At this time, we have no indication of the reason for death. The student's parents have been notified. The Institute offers its deepest condolences to the parents for the unfortunate and devastating loss," the institute's director said.

Over the last three decades, 68 students have killed themselves in the IITs or the Indian Institutes of Technology, which produces some of the world's best professionals. Experts blame the suicides on the inability to manage disappointment and failure in school.

Story First Published: September 22, 2015 13:28 IST