On Sunday, a 21-year-old IIT-Kharagpur student was found dead inside his hostel room. The body was found by his parents who had come to meet him, police said. The student described as “academically gifted” by the institute died of suspected suicide in his hostel room on campus.
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Shaon Malik’s parents, south Kolkata residents drove down to meet him on Sunday. The parents came with home-cooked food. They found Shaon hanging from the iron grille of his hostel windows.
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Shaon was a third-year Electrical Engineering student at IIT-Kharagpur. He was staying in the Azad Hall of Residence of IIT-Kharagpur. Malik’s parents and the institute’s security guards had to forcibly open the door of the hostel room. Tid came after he did not respond to repeated calls, said the IIT authorities.
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Shaon had a good academic record and he was always involved in extracurricular activities. Reports suggest Shaon was a nine-pointer. He was also a member of Druheen, the Bengali dramatic society of IIT. Furthermore, a few days ago shaon had been offered a prized project by his professors.
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IIT Kharagpur Director Amit Patra said, “The reason for the extreme step was not clear. We have not received any suicide notes. The boy’s parents came to meet him with food. Like they do every Sunday. They were the first to see the body hanging. The boy was very good at his studies”.
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He further said, “Nothing suspicious was found. Malik had good relations with the teachers. He didn’t tell anyone about the rest. A lab assistant died a few days ago. But there’s no connection to it”.
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Malik had spoken to his parents over the phone the previous night and “things seemed perfectly normal”, according to the official. The institute will conduct an internal probe into the death and take steps to prevent such incidents in the future, he said. A senior police officer said the post-mortem has been completed and the process was videographed.
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IIT-Kharagpur, in a statement, said: “With a sense of utter shock, the students, staff, and faculty members deeply mourn the sudden loss of Shaon Malik, a third-year student from the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was found dead in Azad Hall of Residence premises on the morning of January 12.” The Azad Hall of Residence is one of the hostels in the institute.
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The statement read: “Upon discovery of the incident, the campus security and medical teams were immediately alerted… The police are conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding Malik’s death. The institute is fully cooperating with the authorities”.
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IIT-Kharagpur has seen several incidents of student deaths in recent years. In June 2024, another IIT-Kharagpur student, Devika Pillai, was found hanging on the college campus.
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In October 2023, a fourth-year Electrical Engineering student, K Kiran Chandra, was found dead. A few days ago, the body of an IIT-Kharagpur junior lab technician-cum-assistant was recovered from one of the quarters on the campus.
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