Professor Indrajit Basak, 64, of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Durgapur, who suffered almost 80 per cent burns in an accident while carrying out research work with his students last week, died of a heart attack at a hospital in New Delhi on Monday.

However, his student Akash Majhi, a resident of Asansol, who had also received burn injuries in the accident, was released from the hospital and is recovering at home.

Last Tuesday, Basak, a professor at the mechanical engineering department of NIT, was carrying out research work on thermite welding outside the laboratory with some of his final-year students when a chemical spilled out of a container and splashed on their bodies following a freak explosion.

The senior professor suffered severe burns all over the body and face.

Initially admitted to a private hospital in Durgapur, he was eventually shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi by air ambulance for better treatment.

Sources at the New Delhi hospital said that Basak suffered a massive heart attack around 7.30am and died.

In a media statement on Monday, Arvind Choubey, the director of NIT, mourned the professor’s demise.

He said that Basak had been recovering well, but he suddenly suffered a heart attack on Monday morning and was no more.

Choubey, along with several other NIT professors, visited Basak’s Durgapur home and expressed condolences to his family.