Ranchi, Oct. 2: The body of a final-year-student of production management of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, was found from inside his hostel room today.

Vijay Prakash, 23, stayed in Hostel 3 on the institute?s premises. He is suspected to have taken his life, depressed over the suicide of his friend and hostel-mate a year ago.

Prakash?s body has been kept in the mortuary of Apollo Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

The body will be taken for post-mortem to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) tomorrow.

Officials of the technology institute said the hostel inmates went to Prakash?s room to call him in the morning and grew suspicious when he did not open the door. The students immediately informed the institute officials and then entered the room through the window.

A.P. Singh, the chief medical officer of the institute, said: ?I received information from the students that Prakash was not opening his door even after repeated calls. This was unlike him, the students said. I rushed to Hostel 3 and told the students to enter the room through the window. There we found the body lying,? he said.

The officials maintained that the body was not found hanging from the ceiling and neither was there any suicide note. ?We are also not omitting the possibility of a cardiac arrest,? they added.

Singh said: ?We also uspect that Prakash might have taken sleeping pills or poison in excess which might have led to his death. There was no indication of the student having any love affair with somebody. This may also be a case of cardiac arrest. The guardian of Prakash, who is from Patna, has been informed and they will arrive tomorrow for the necessary formalities.?

The officials are also not omitting the use of drugs by Prakash, which could have led to his ?possible suicide?. The chief medical officer maintained that the student had a history of taking drugs. ?Some of the students we spoke to confirmed that. We also hear that the boy was under some sort of depression for quite some time now,? said Singh.

Prakash, the official said, had a close friend who used to study with him in the institute. This boy had committed suicide about a year ago. As Prakash was very close to his friend, he had been staying sober and depressed for quite a long time. We suspect that this depression had led him to commit suicide,? said Singh.

Police officials said they had no information about the death.

The Sadar police station, whose jurisdiction includes BIT, denied having any information regarding the issue.

Senior superintendent of police Anil Palta said he did not have any clue about the incident.