NIT Calicut student found dead; 3 students die by suicide in 4 days in IITs, NIT

NEW DELHI: A second-year BTech student of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kozhikode jumped off the hostel building in the campus on Wednesday. This is the third such incident in the last 4 days. Two students from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) died by suicide on February 12 and 13.

Nidhin Sharma, a resident of West Bengal, was pursuing second-year electrical engineering in NIT Kozhikode campus. “The reason for suicide is unknown. But, the deceased sent a WhatsApp message to his friend saying he was going to end his life,” the mathrubhumi.com reported.

IIT Bombay was in the spotlight after its first year engineering student, Darshan Solanki, jumped off the seventh floor of a hostel building on February 12 and died. The deceased was from Ahmedabad. Following the incident, the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) highlighted the caste discrimination in IITs. But the claims were strongly rejected by IIT-Bombay.

The next day, Stephan Sunny hailing from Maharashtra and a MS in electrical engineering students at IIT Madras was found hanging from the ceiling. The student in his suicide note said “don’t prosecute”, as per the Times of India report. The students of IIT Madras had staged an overnight protest after another student of the institute attempted suicide.

The government data presented in the Lok Sabha in December 2021 revealed that 58% student suicides in IITs, NITs, central institutions were from SC, ST, OBC, minority communities. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB report 2021) released in August last year showed that over the past five years from 2016 to 2021, the number of student suicides in India has risen by 27%.

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