The stab wounds on the neck of Harsh Bhalani, the XLRI student found dead in a bathroom at Peerless Inn early on Saturday, were “self-inflicted in nature”, the doctor who conducted the post-mortem has told police.

Harsh, 24, died within some hours of checking into the Chowringhee hotel on Thursday morning, according to the preliminary findings of the post-mortem. “The doctor’s inference is that a deep wound on the throat of the deceased led to his death. Some minor injuries were seen on the neck, all of which appeared to be self-inflicted,” a police officer said.

The injuries were possibly caused by the kitchen knife found beside the body. “Harsh’s check-in time was 11.30am on Thursday. The doctor told us he died between 4pm and 10pm the same day,” said an officer at New Market police station.

The official version of how Harsh died will be confirmed only after the police receive the final post-mortem report.

Harsh’s uncle Pankaj Patel, who flew out of Calcutta with his nephew’s body early on Sunday, said no member of the family had a clue to what triggered the tragedy. “He was a determined person. He was not the type to go into depression,” Patel told Metro from Mumbai airport in the evening.

He was waiting to take a connecting flight to Ahmedabad and onward by road to Rajkot, where Harsh’s family lives. The Bhalanis hadn’t filed any police complaint till Sunday night.

Harsh’s phone, found in his hotel room, has been sent for forensic examination. Investigators hope to find something in the call log that could lead to a breakthrough. The upper part of a track suit and a T-shirt were the only belongings the police found in the bag that he had carried to Peerless Inn.

Harsh, who did his BTech at BITS Pilani before joining XLRI, was to check out of the hotel on Friday. A do-not-disturb sign on the door kept the staff from making enquiries until evening. The reception tried contacting him thrice but his mobile phone was found switched off each time.

A duplicate key was used to enter the room at 1.30pm on Friday. When the staff stepped into the room, they didn’t find Harsh but noticed his bag and concluded that he had changed his mind about checking out that day. Around 1.30am on Saturday, the reception received a call from a person who introduced himself as Harsh’s college friend from Jamshedpur. The friend expressed concern that Harsh was not taking calls.

When security staff used the duplicate key to enter the room again around 2am, it was exactly in the same state as it was at 1.30 in the afternoon. Using screwdrivers, the staff prised open the en-suite bathroom door and found Harsh lying in a pool of blood and water under the shower.

Harsh used to stay at St Thomas Men’s Residence, one of the four hostels on the old XLRI campus in Jamshedpur. “The institute had organised a Diwali party on the campus on November 7 and he was there. Nobody saw him upset over anything,” an official said.