Published: Sunday, Nov 8, 2009, 3:37 IST
By Mihika Basu & Rashpal Singh | Agency: DNA
By Mihika Basu & Rashpal Singh | Agency: DNA
A day after Siddharth Charan, a BTech student at IIT Bombay, committed suicide at his Jodhpur home on Friday morning, the institute reiterated that the second-year student had not shown any indication that he would take such a drastic step.
“No one, not even his roommate, detected any sign of anxiety. We have various mechanisms of figuring out if someone is in trouble, and encourage students to come to us with their problems. Charan didn’t exhibit any visible signs of stress and depression,” said Prakash Gopalan, dean of students’ affairs at IIT Bombay.
Gopalan said Charan was a Mess secretary at his hostel (Number Two). “Charan was involved in a responsible activity and if he had shown even the slightest behavioural change, it would’ve come to someone’s notice,” Gopalan said. He added that the youngster did not appear to be a loner either. (His Orkut profile suggests he was a part of many online communities and was a fan of net games.)
Charan allegedly left for home on Thursday and called his mother from Jodhpur Airport to surprise her. The police claim that his suicide was pre-planned. Dinesh Singh, station house officer (SHO) of Mahamandir police station in Jodhpur, said both the police and Charan’s parents feel the note recovered from his room indicates he may have been suffering from depression. Charan, who shot himself with a .12 bore gun on Friday, had asked his mother for his father’s licensed gun and bullets. She gave it to him, thinking he wanted to clean it.
Meanwhile, Charan’s local guardian in Mumbai met Gopalan on Saturday. “He was trying to see if we can throw any light on the situation. He said Charan’s family feels something may have happened in Mumbai to trigger his suicide. But we said that if that had been the case, the boy wouldn’t have waited to go to Jodhpur first,” Gopalan added.
Charan’s batchmates are also puzzled. “He was quite a cheerful person. The day he left for home, Charan said he was feeling homesick. But neither his classmates nor his roommate were aware he was under any stress,” a batchmate said.
“No one, not even his roommate, detected any sign of anxiety. We have various mechanisms of figuring out if someone is in trouble, and encourage students to come to us with their problems. Charan didn’t exhibit any visible signs of stress and depression,” said Prakash Gopalan, dean of students’ affairs at IIT Bombay.
Gopalan said Charan was a Mess secretary at his hostel (Number Two). “Charan was involved in a responsible activity and if he had shown even the slightest behavioural change, it would’ve come to someone’s notice,” Gopalan said. He added that the youngster did not appear to be a loner either. (His Orkut profile suggests he was a part of many online communities and was a fan of net games.)
Charan allegedly left for home on Thursday and called his mother from Jodhpur Airport to surprise her. The police claim that his suicide was pre-planned. Dinesh Singh, station house officer (SHO) of Mahamandir police station in Jodhpur, said both the police and Charan’s parents feel the note recovered from his room indicates he may have been suffering from depression. Charan, who shot himself with a .12 bore gun on Friday, had asked his mother for his father’s licensed gun and bullets. She gave it to him, thinking he wanted to clean it.
Meanwhile, Charan’s local guardian in Mumbai met Gopalan on Saturday. “He was trying to see if we can throw any light on the situation. He said Charan’s family feels something may have happened in Mumbai to trigger his suicide. But we said that if that had been the case, the boy wouldn’t have waited to go to Jodhpur first,” Gopalan added.
Charan’s batchmates are also puzzled. “He was quite a cheerful person. The day he left for home, Charan said he was feeling homesick. But neither his classmates nor his roommate were aware he was under any stress,” a batchmate said.
