Anik Dutta

Burdwan, Sept. 28: A former CPM councillor’s son allegedly committed suicide in a private hostel near his engineering college in Nagpur yesterday, with the family saying they were clueless about the possible reason.

Anik Dutta, 22, was found hanging at the hostel he shared with other students of Priyadarshini College of Engineering in Nagpur last evening.

Anik is the only son of Ashok Dutta, a former councillor of the Burdwan municipality and an assistant manager at Durgapur Projects Ltd (DPL). According to the family, Ashok, 55, received a call around 4.30pm yesterday from one of his son’s classmates, Kushal, saying “Anik is no more”. “My brother almost collapsed,” said Asit, Ashok’s brother.

Around 10 last night, the head of Anik’s department at the college called to say the boy had “committed suicide”, Asit said.

Prasanta, another of Ashok’s brothers, has left for Nagpur. “We expect him to bring the body back either tonight or tomorrow morning,” Asit added.

Asit said the family found it difficult to accept that Anik committed suicide. “He was mentally very strong.” Asked if he suspected murder, he kept silent.

Asit also could not say whether the suicide was the fallout of a possible love affair. “May be, may be not. I don’t know. We are all waiting for our younger brother (Prasanta) to return. Maybe, he will get some information from police or Anik’s classmates.” The family has informed Burdwan police about the death.