Mumbai: IIT-B student Missing since November 22, searched for city bridges online before he left campus
A resident of Jaipur, Harsh left the campus on the evening of November 22 without his mobile phone or belongings. Ever since, his father Dinesh Sharma has spent all his days looking for his son, hopeful of finding even a single clue.
Written by Abha Goradia
| Mumbai | Updated: December 24, 2019 3:42:25 am
The police had just one clue: before leaving, Harsh had Googled ‘Bridges of Mumbai’. (Representational Image)
A MONTH ago, 20-year-old Harsh Sharma left the IIT-Bombay campus without informing anyone, raising several questions among his family members, friends and the institute authorities.
A resident of Jaipur, Harsh left the campus on the evening of November 22 without his mobile phone or belongings. Ever since, his father Dinesh Sharma has spent all his days looking for his son, hopeful of finding even
The police had just one clue: before leaving, Harsh had Googled ‘Bridges of Mumbai’. (Representational Image)
A MONTH ago, 20-year-old Harsh Sharma left the IIT-Bombay campus without informing anyone, raising several questions among his family members, friends and the institute authorities.
A resident of Jaipur, Harsh left the campus on the evening of November 22 without his mobile phone or belongings. Ever since, his father Dinesh Sharma has spent all his days looking for his son, hopeful of finding even
a single clue.
Harsh Sharma.
“It’s like trying to find a needle in the desert. We have looked for him everywhere — gurdwara, railway tracks, temples, cemeteries, hospitals, shelter homes — but have failed. Someone says go here, someone says go there. We have been everywhere, it’s been directionless. But we don’t want to give up,” he said.
The police had just one clue: before leaving, Harsh had Googled ‘Bridges of Mumbai’. His father, police and IIT-B security personnel have, in the past month, searched all the bridges in Mumbai, scanned CCTV footage around them and spoken to people there, but in vain.
While Harsh was at IIT-B, Dinesh and the rest of the family had spent the past three years juggling between the campus and Jaipur, where they own pharmacy stores.
Harsh started his B Tech at the electrical engineering department in July 2017. His AIR was 448. However, a few months on in November, it came to light that he wasn’t coping well. So, the family was allotted a residential accommodation on the campus by the Dean of Student Affairs.
One member of the family — Dinesh, his wife or Harsh’s elder brother — had always been present on the campus.
“He had failed the computer science exam, from where things took a downturn. He was under treatment the entire time and was taking medication. His thought process became negative and we tried a lot to motivate him. He would be fine for two to three days but his anxiety and stress would return,” Dinesh said.
In December 2018, Harsh had, for the first time, gone missing but was found the following day at 3 am. He then attempted suicide by bringing a rope to his room but was saved by his roommate.
“Doctors in Jaipur too had advised us to keep Harsh at home. They were reluctant to give him a fitness certificate. But Harsh wouldn’t agree. Even if he hadn’t passed out from IIT, we would have been just as proud,” Dinesh said, adding that he had also tried motivating his son through Dale Carnegie and Arindam Chaudhari’s self-help books.
Despite their efforts, Harsh had expressed his suicidal thoughts to his father a number of times. The Student Welfare Centre at IIT-B had pointed out “reactive depression” in Harsh, his father said. “We would tell him to not take any extreme step as long as we are alive. Children are our biggest asset.”
Madhuri Zengde of Powai police station, the investigating officer in the case, told The Indian Express, “We have exhausted most of our ideas. We have tried to check CCTV footage at several places, have looked for bodies and sent wireless message to all police stations. We can’t confirm if he’s out of the city, since we have found no clues,” she said, adding that the matter might now be escalated to a national level search.
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TAGS:
Bombay IIT
“It’s like trying to find a needle in the desert. We have looked for him everywhere — gurdwara, railway tracks, temples, cemeteries, hospitals, shelter homes — but have failed. Someone says go here, someone says go there. We have been everywhere, it’s been directionless. But we don’t want to give up,” he said.
The police had just one clue: before leaving, Harsh had Googled ‘Bridges of Mumbai’. His father, police and IIT-B security personnel have, in the past month, searched all the bridges in Mumbai, scanned CCTV footage around them and spoken to people there, but in vain.
While Harsh was at IIT-B, Dinesh and the rest of the family had spent the past three years juggling between the campus and Jaipur, where they own pharmacy stores.
Harsh started his B Tech at the electrical engineering department in July 2017. His AIR was 448. However, a few months on in November, it came to light that he wasn’t coping well. So, the family was allotted a residential accommodation on the campus by the Dean of Student Affairs.
One member of the family — Dinesh, his wife or Harsh’s elder brother — had always been present on the campus.
“He had failed the computer science exam, from where things took a downturn. He was under treatment the entire time and was taking medication. His thought process became negative and we tried a lot to motivate him. He would be fine for two to three days but his anxiety and stress would return,” Dinesh said.
In December 2018, Harsh had, for the first time, gone missing but was found the following day at 3 am. He then attempted suicide by bringing a rope to his room but was saved by his roommate.
“Doctors in Jaipur too had advised us to keep Harsh at home. They were reluctant to give him a fitness certificate. But Harsh wouldn’t agree. Even if he hadn’t passed out from IIT, we would have been just as proud,” Dinesh said, adding that he had also tried motivating his son through Dale Carnegie and Arindam Chaudhari’s self-help books.
Despite their efforts, Harsh had expressed his suicidal thoughts to his father a number of times. The Student Welfare Centre at IIT-B had pointed out “reactive depression” in Harsh, his father said. “We would tell him to not take any extreme step as long as we are alive. Children are our biggest asset.”
Madhuri Zengde of Powai police station, the investigating officer in the case, told The Indian Express, “We have exhausted most of our ideas. We have tried to check CCTV footage at several places, have looked for bodies and sent wireless message to all police stations. We can’t confirm if he’s out of the city, since we have found no clues,” she said, adding that the matter might now be escalated to a national level search.
For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App
TAGS:
Bombay IIT
