IIT-Hyderabad student’s death leaves campus in shock

The death of a 22-year-old MTech student, Mamitha Nayak, who had arrived at the campus just 12 days ago, has left students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad campus in shock

Sangareddy: The death of a 22-year-old MTech (Computer Science Engineering) student, Mamitha Nayak, who had arrived at the campus just 12 days ago, has left students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad campus in shock.

Nayak is believed to have hanged herself in her hostel room on the campus located at Kand in Sangareddy on late on Monday. She was a native of Dumri village in Sonepur of Odisha. Incidentally, this is the first suicide of a female student of the IIT-H, with the previous six suicides being of male students. When Nayak did not open her hostel room on Monday night, the college management called the Sangareddy Rural Police who forcibly opened the door and found her hanging. After examining her room, police found a note written by her in English and Odia languages. She cited depression and financial issues as the reasons that drove her to the extreme step.

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However, her paternal uncle Jagneswar Nayak said her family IIhad no financial issues. Mamitha had stayed in Hyderabad for the previous seven months in 2022-23 to prepare for the GATE examination in which she got one of the top scores. Her uncle said she was a topper in Class 10, intermediate and B-Tech as well. Nayak’s body was taken to Odisha after autopsy on Tuesday.

The family has demanded the IIT-H to come up with an explanation of what exactly forced Mamitha to end her life in less than 15 days after joining the institute. Her family members said they were not even allowed onto the campus leaving alone getting any response from the management.

Just 20 days ago, another student of the institute, Karthikhad left the campus, and was found dead in a suspected case of suicide in Visakhapatnam. The last one year saw three more suicides apart from the latest two.