IIT Kharagpur authorities have decided to constitute a committee to look into the reasons behind the spate of student suicides on the campus and suggest if there is a need to improve the system, the institute’s acting director said on Friday.

IIT announced the steps days after the mother and brother of deceased student Aniket Walkar wrote to the authorities, seeking an independent probe by an expert committee into the circumstances leading to his death.

Aniket, who studied ocean engineering and naval architecture and was from Maharashtra’s Gondia district, was found hanging in his room at the JC Bose Hall of Residence on April 20.

“We have decided to constitute a committee that will investigate the reasons behind the spate of suicides and advise us whether there is scope to improve the system. We will announce the composition of the committee soon,” Amit Patra, director of IIT (BHU) and acting director of IIT Kharagpur, told Metro.

The April 28 letter, addressed to Patra, from Aniket’s mother Sunita Dipak Walkar and brother Sudeep Dipak Walkar, said: “We demand an independent probe by a committee of experts just like IIT Delhi commissioned, to fairly investigate why such a large number of suicides are taking place in your campus and why our bright child died an unnatural and untimely death.”

Patra told Metro on Friday: “The committee would be constituted on the lines of what IIT Delhi has done.”

In March 2024, IIT Delhi formed a committee to study the institutional process and environment “in the context of recent student tragedies”.

The terms of reference of the committee that was constituted after complaints of student suicides on the IIT Delhi campus said: “To study the institutional process and environment in the context of the recent deaths by suicide on campus and to suggest remedial measures.”

Aniket’s was the third student death on the IIT Kharagpur campus in 10 months, renewing concerns about the students’ fragile mental health and the institute’s apparent lack of concern.

On Tuesday, Aniket’s brother Sudeep had told Metro: “Even if my brother died by suicide, the IIT authorities and the police need to share with us what compelled him to take such a drastic step. You just cannot say it was a case of suicide and get away. You owe us an explanation.”

Sudeep, studying BTech at IIT Guwahati, in a letter to Kharagpur Town Police station on April 28, urged the police to “carry out a fair investigation to find out the reasons, cause and circumstances under which our bright child died”.

A request was made to register an FIR based on the family’s complaint “on an urgent basis”.

It could not be known whether the police have taken any action since then.

Calls and text messages to Dhritiman Sarkar, superintendent of police in West Midnapore district, went unanswered on Friday.