Paradip, April 27: A 25-year-old MTech student, who was allegedly undergoing bouts mental disorder, burnt himself to death in his native village in Jagatsinghpur district.

The incident, according to police sources, occurred last afternoon in Tarapur village under Raghunathpur police station limits.

“Rajesh Choudhury (25), a native of Subhadrapur village, was pursuing his MTech degree at the Dhenkanal-based Synergy Institute of Technology. Local residents saw him screaming while he was caught in a blaze near a crop field about 300 feet away from the main road of Tarapur village. There was no source of fire near the place. By the time local residents rushed to the place with buckets of water, the engineering student had sustained almost 90 per cent burn injuries. He died while villagers were taking him to the S.C.B Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack,” said Padarabinda Tripaty, inspector of Raghunathpur police station.

“Rajesh brought his motorcycle to a halt near the village road and marched towards the crop field. He had brought with him a jar filled with petrol. I was removing weeds at an adjacent crop field. All of a sudden, he began sprinkling petrol all over his body and set himself on fire. As soon as I noticed this, I started shouting at the top of my voice. By the time people came to rescue him, everything was over,” said Narahari Biswal, a farmer, who is an eyewitness to the incident.

“The victim, who was pursuing his MTech course at the Synergy Institute of Technology, failed to get any job after passing his BTech. According to his family members, he was not happy with the job options. He was in an unstable state of mind,” said Tripaty.

“Earlier, he had made a couple of attempts to commit suicide. He was in a state of depression because of insecurity regarding his professional career. After passing out his BTech, he had got some job offers in private sectors which he decided to reject as the salary packages fell below his expectation. Then, he had opted for higher studies to enhance his prospects of getting a suitable job with attractive pay package,” said Rakesh Choudhury, younger brother of the deceased.