Kanpur, Jan. 4: The autopsy was over and the young engineer’s body lay embalmed on the campus as fellow IITians filed past silently.

MTech student Ganga Pattanam Suman, brooding since campus recruiters didn’t pick him during a recent placement drive, had ended his battle with depression yesterday.

It was the third suicide in nine months at IIT Kanpur.

But what made Suman and the others, easily the cream of India’s scientific talent, fall victim to crippling personality disorder and kill themselves?

Psychoanalyst Rashmi Chaturvedi, who has been counselling IITians for sometime now, says their mission is to “parachute” into top jobs. “The fear of not getting it immediately… causes a grave personality breakdown.”

Institute director Sanjay Dhande said the premier tech schools were not just about science and technology, but also about “psychological health of a student” that needs to be taken care of. “But society is not bothered about it,” he said in between helping Suman’s uncle and brother with the formalities.

The 24-year-old’s father G. Bhaskariyya was too traumatised to come and take his son’s body, which was later flown to Delhi en route to their native Andhra Pradesh.

“Between the mental asylum and the detection of a disorder, there are many shades of minor behavioural disorders, which go unnoticed. If known early, it could save lives,” Dhande added.

Bengal girl Toya Chatterjee killed herself last May — she hid from her father that she had failed in her final semester. In April last year, first-year student Prashant Kumar succumbed to stress and committed suicide.

Third-year civil engineering student Jay Bharadwaj jumped before a speeding train in April 2007. He was in the middle of exams and a setback in one of the papers might have led to the suicide, IIT authorities said.

In May 2006, exam stress caught up with final-year student Shailesh Sharma.

Worried IIT authorities said they were doing their bit to help students to combat stress. “We have set up counselling centres and have also been organising yoga therapies. Yet something goes unnoticed,” said deputy director Kripa Shankar.

A member of the IIT placement cell said the firms that hired students during the campus recruitment last month were from north India and might have preferred students from this region. “Maybe (Suman’s) language was a problem.”

He added that the final year electrical engineering student — whose cumulative performance index this year was 6.75 per cent, which is considered good — still had time to find an employer.

“Around 180 firms are expected to interview students till April,” the placement cell member said. “There would have been more chances for him.”

But Suman didn’t wait.