The body of a 19-year-old student of a college on the southern fringes of the city was fished out of Rabindra Sarobar on Thursday morning.

The student, Amartya Sarkar, had been missing from his hostel on the college compound since Wednesday.

Police came to know after preliminary investigations that Amartya, a first-year student of economics honours, committed suicide after having failed to answer most questions in a college examination. The incident adds to the growing trend of student suicides following failure in examinations.

The exams Amartya sat for began on Wednesday. Ranvir Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) said that after the test was over, Amartya returned to his hostel with others. 'But his room-mates could not find him in the evening. He had not been traced since.'

The same evening, officers of Lake police station, during a routine patrol of the Lake area, got the first lead of the case.

'We saw a cellphone, a bunch of keys and a pair of shoes on the banks. We came to know about the identity of the owner after going through the call records on the cellphone,' said an officer of Lake police station. 'We searched every corner of the lake, but in vain.'

Police waited till Thursday morning for the body to surface. 'But nothing was visible by the morning, forcing us to call the Disaster Management Group,' said another officer of the police station.

The divers of the Disaster Management Group carried out an extensive search for two hours and fished out the body.

Police said there were no injury marks on the body. 'The preliminary medical examination confirmed our finding,' said the officer.

'Immediately after recovering the body, we informed Amartya's parents who live in a housing complex in Kasba. The parents came to the police station and identified their son,' he added.

A team of policemen visited Amartya's hostel and spoke to his friends.

'No suicide note was found in his room. His friends said Amartya had been looking depressed since he returned to the hostel from the examination hall,' said another officer working on the case.