IIT-B prof’s adopted son stabs self over social media post
S Ahmed Ali & Malathy Iyer | TNN | Jan 17, 2016, 01.47 AM IST
MUMBAI: The IIT Bombay campus witnessed a gory suicide on Friday afternoon when a 20-year-old student, the adopted son of a senior professor of the institute, stabbed himself during the course of an argument with his adoptive parents and sister.
The Powai police have, after talking to his parents and a married elder sister who was present at home during the incident, ruled out foul play and registered a case of accidental death.
While family friends suggested that the argument had started over a post on a social networking site, the police said that the sister was counselling the boy when he flared up. "His sister was trying to make him understand that he was now grown up and needed to take care of his parents when the youngster got angry. He went into a room and stabbed himself in the chest before anybody could react,'' said B K Madheshwar, senior inspector of the Powai police station.
The boy was barely four years old when he adopted by his maternal aunt on his parents deaths. His aunt is married to a senior professor in IIT Bombay who told TOI over the phone that "it is a personal matter" and he wouldn't like to talk about it.
According to the police and family friends, the discussion on Friday afternoon turned so heated that the boy first tried to hit his father. He then challenged his family saying "do you know what I can do to myself" and stabbed himself. He was rushed to the nearby Hiranandani Hospital, but he was declared dead on admission "due to serious internal injuries".
The police have ruled out any property dispute or foul play, saying that the IIT professor had, in fact, made the boy his nominee in all property matters. The police are recording statements of his friends and relatives to know the exact cause of his act.
Top Comment
This is an indication about the mental health of the present generation of youth.The social media is the only companion of youth who avoid social life and keep aloof.
Further teen age is a night mare for parents when their mind is tumultious and sympathetic attention may playdown their upsurge of anger.May his soul rest in peace
raghunadharao k
While some friends and neighbours in the IIT campus said that the boy was "always irritable", others said that he was depressed. "The bizareness of the incident shocks and points to distriburances within that are not easily visible to others," said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.
He said the "event and the increasing number of suicides result in an invisible life-long trauma for parents. The pain and the suffering will manifest across life if not intervened early. Just like the state has decided to trace out school dropout, it needs to launch a similar movement to stop suicides. There is need to provide mental health succor towards parents and relatives who are left behind to answer questions."
(with inputs from Yogita Rao)
