IIT Kharagpur authorities will decide this week whether they will form a committee to probe the death of a fourth-year student who was found hanging on the campus on April 20, said the institute’s acting director.
The mother and brother of the deceased student, Aniket Walkar, on Monday wrote to the IIT authorities, seeking an independent probe by an expert committee into the circumstances leading to his death.
Amit Patra, director of IIT BHU (Varanasi), serving as acting director of IIT Kharagpur since early January, said they had not yet conducted a probe into the death, which appeared to be by suicide.
“The family also knew what Aniket was going through (getting treatment for mental health issues). Still, since they have sought a probe, we will meet soon and decide in the next two or three days what can be done. We understand what they must be going through,” said Patra.
“I am returning to IIT Kharagpur. Let me go through the letter and discuss it with the concerned officials. Then we will take a call.”
Aniket’s family members also drew the authorities’ attention to the spate of deaths on the campus.
The letter, addressed to Patra, from Aniket’s mother Sunita Dipak Walkar and brother Sudeep Dipak Walkar, said: “We demand an independent probe by a committee of experts just like IIT Delhi commissioned, to fairly investigate why such a large number of suicides are taking place in your campus and why did our bright child die an unnatural and untimely death.”
Sudeep, studying BTech at IIT Guwahati, in a letter to Kharagpur Town Police station, said: “(Aniket) was brilliant in academics and a top performer. Yet he died under mysterious circumstances. Please carry out a fair investigation to find out the reasons, cause and circumstances under which our bright child died...”
“Kindly register an FIR based on the complaint letter on an urgent basis,” he wrote.
On Tuesday, Sudeep told Metro: “We have not heard anything from the police on whether they have lodged an FIR... Even if my brother died because of a suicide, the IIT authorities and the police need to share with us what compelled him to take such a drastic step. You just cannot say it was a case of suicide and then get away. You owe us an explanation.”
Calls and text messages to Dhritimam Sarkar, superintendent of police in West Midnapore district, went unanswered on Tuesday.
Metro reported on April 22 that Aniket, who studied ocean engineering and naval architecture, was from Maharashtra’s Gondia district. He was found hanging in his room at the JC Bose Hall of Residence.
Aniket’s was the third student death on the campus in 10 months, renewing concerns about the students’ fragile mental health and the institute’s apparent lack of
concern.
“Death of students seems to have become a new normal on the IIT Kharagpur campus, and the authorities seem to have remained unmoved. The IIT acting director is required to commission an enquiry by independent experts, as the family has sought, to establish accountability and implement remedial measures to contain the surge of suicides,” said Dheeraj Singh, founder of the global IIT alumni group and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.
Not all the campus deaths are linked to suicide.
Although the IIT Kharagpur authorities tried to pass off the death of Faizan Ahmed, a third-year mechanical engineer student, in October 2022, as suicide, his family moved Calcutta High Court challenging the findings.
A court-appointed forensic medicine expert said Faizan’s death could be “homicide”. The case is still pending.