IIT Kanpur PhD Scholar Dies By Suicide In Hostel Room, Blames No One For Extreme Step

Kanpur: A 24-year-old PhD scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, dies by suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room on Monday. The deceased student, identified as Ankit Yadav, took his own life by hanging himself from the ceiling of his hostel room. The incident came to light when Ankit’s friends tried to contact him, but their calls went unanswered, prompting his hostel mates to inform the IIT-Kanpur authorities.

Following the incident, the police were alerted, and they rushed to the scene, where they found Ankit's body. A suicide note was recovered, stating that he had taken the extreme step of his own will and blamed nobody for it.

The police have initiated an investigation, and a forensic team has been called to collect evidence.

According to Additional DCP (West) Vijendra Dwivedi, "We received information about the suicide around 5 pm, and by the time we arrived, the IIT-Kanpur authorities had already taken out the body and shot a video of it as evidence." The exact reasons behind the suicide will only be revealed after a preliminary probe.

Meanwhile, IIT-Kanpur has expressed its condolences over the loss of the promising research scholar. In a statement, the institute said, "IIT-K mourns the tragic and untimely demise of Ankit Yadav... Yadav was a promising research scholar who joined the institute in July 2024, with an UGC Fellowship."

The institute is cooperating with the police and forensic team in the ongoing investigation and is committed to taking all necessary steps to prevent such unfortunate incidents.

This incident is not the first of its kind at IIT-Kanpur. There have been several reported cases of student suicides in the past year, including those of PhD students Pragati Kharya, Priyanka Jaiswal, MTech student Vikas Kumar Meena, and postdoctoral researcher Pallavi Chilka.