A preliminary post-mortem of IIT Kharagpur research scholar Bhattaram Shravan Kumar, who died in a city hospital on Sunday, revealed “crash injuries” on his right side and a “deep injury on the right side of his head”.
The post-mortem at NRS Medical College and Hospital also found that Shravan’s skull was fractured.
Shravan, 26, from Andhra Pradesh, was found near the railway tracks in Kharagpur early on Sunday.
A family friend and local guardian in Calcutta said Shravan may have been wearing earphones and not heard an approaching train. “We don’t believe he committed suicide. After completing his PhD, he was planning to go to the US,” the friend said.
His mother, Bhattaram Rama Kumari, an officer at a nationalised bank, arrived at Peerless Hospital on Sunday. Following the post-mortem on Tuesday, she returned to Andhra Pradesh with the body for the last rites, an IIT official said.
The family previously lived in Kharagpur and moved to Andhra Pradesh after Shravan’s mother was transferred, campus sources said.
The family has not lodged a complaint.
“We filed a complaint of unnatural death,” said a government railway police (GRP) officer. A GRP jawan who found Shravan near the unmanned level crossing close to IIT’s Puri gate said it was unclear which train hit him. “So many long-distance trains pass through Kharagpur station. When we found him around 1am, he was bleeding profusely from the head,” he said. IIT security guards were alerted.
IIT Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty told Metro in a text message that the institute had formed a committee to probe the death.
Shravan was pursuing a PhD at the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) and lived in the Meghnad Saha Hall.
An IIT professor said CCTV footage at campus gates should be checked to determine when he left the campus. “The authorities must speak to fellow boarders. Students often go out for food instead of eating at the mess. There are some food joints on the other side of the level crossing,” the professor said.
Shravan’s death is the sixth fatality at IIT Kharagpur this year. Two research scholars and four BTech students have died since January.