254 - IIT-B students complain of stress, inadequate support - DNA

IIT-B students complain of stress, inadequate support

Saturday, 6 September 2014 - 7:05am IST | Agency: DNA

The death of 22-year-old Aniket Ambhore at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay is not the first such case. There have been at least two other incidents in the past 19 months that have sparked concerns.

What were the earlier incidents?

In February last year, Ankur Abhishek, a fourth year dual-degree electrical engineering student, drowned in Vihar lake. In January this year, M Siva Theja, a PhD student hailing from Hyderabad went missing. His body was found, the head covered with plastic, at a lodge in Visakhapatnam.

students believe that all these cases are suicides and they insist that the institute is trying to brush them under the carpet.

On Friday, activities on the campus appeared to be normal, except that the Teachers' Day programme was cancelled.

Is there too much academic pressure?

The students suggest that academic pressure together with inadequate support mechanism is leading to mental pressure that they are not able to deal with.

"Academic vigour is so much that sometimes even the most brilliant brains feel lost, especially those who haven't got the course of their choice. We're supposed to clear six subjects every semester. If you have a backlog, the pressure goes out of the roof," said a final year B-Tech student.

Urjit Yajnik, dean of students affairs, says there's academic stress in schools too, but there are counsellors to help students at IIT-B. Students argue this is not sufficient.

"This cannot be addressed by any counsellor. Merely sending students for the academic rehabilitation programme is not enough. What about the threat of losing a year," asked a general secretary of a hostel.

Do teachers fail students deliberately?

Students also allege that some teachers fail students deliberately over petty issues. "I was failed as I submitted my project 10 minutes late. I had to appear for the course all over again in the next semester. I am not allowed to question the autonomy of the teacher," rued a final year student of metallurgical engineering.

Teachers are said to be so strict that they mark students absent even if they are just 10 minutes late to class, despite the fact that this may be due to an earlier lecture being delayed.

Prof Yajnik denies the charges. "You are taking things to another dimension. I wouldn't like to comment on that." he said.

Why no discussion with the students?

"I've been studying here for the past five years and have seen so many cases of deaths. But there has never been any official word from the institute. Whatever we got to know was through the media. It's as if the authorities don't care when a student dies," said another M-Tech student.

Why the silence over Aniket's death?

On Friday afternoon the IIT-B public relations officer (PRO) sent out an e-mail to the media stating that the Teachers' Day event had been cancelled "due to some internal reasons".

The death of the fourth year student on Thursday was not even acknowledged by the administration, perhaps a confirmation of the indifference of the Country's premier technical institute to the problems of students. "This wasn't good news and so mentioning it was not required," the PRO said.

225 - 26-year-old IIT-B student committed suicide in Andhra lodge, say police

26-year-old IIT-B student committed suicide in Andhra lodge, say police

Wednesday, January 22, 2014 - 11:06 IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

DNA Correspondent

The PhD student of IIT Bombay, whose was found dead in Visakhapatnam is learnt to have committed suicide, said the Mumbai police.

The body of M Siva Theja, 26, was recovered from a lodge in Visakhapatnam on January 18, four days after he was reported missing.

Senior inspector Yadavrao Jadhav of Powai police station said, “We have now learnt that he committed suicide. We have asked the local police to send us a report so that we can conduct further investigations and look at all possible angles.”

The Visakhapatnam police had found a polythene taped to Theja’s face and around his fingers. A plastic tape roll was found near the body. His dismantled mobile phone and ID card were found in the room.

The PhD student had left the campus without informing anyone. Initially, sources had said that the death could have been caused by suffocation, and that the post-mortem report had not indicated poisoning.

Theja had reached the Visakhapatnam lodge on January 16. The incident came to light on January 18 when the room-cleaning staff suspected something amiss after failing to get any response from Theja.

Theja’s parents had lodged a missing complaint with the Mumbai police on January 15 after they lost contact with their son. They were staying at the IIT-B guest house but rushed to Visakhapatnam on January 18, an IIT official said.  

IIT-B officials and students said PhD students often go on trips or for interviews without informing anyone; so, his absence had not raised any suspicion.  

“Theja had not shown any sign of depression. In fact, he was a bright student and had recently helped organise a conference,” said Urjit Yajnik, dean of students’ affairs.

224 - IIT student's death: No poison found in body- TOI

IIT student's death: No poison found in body

Sulogna Mehta & V Kamalakara Rao, TNN Jan 21, 2014, 12.44PM IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Vizag police is yet to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of 26-year-old IIT Mumbai PhD scholar M Sivatheja, who was found dead in a city lodge on Saturday (January 18). However, the city cops decided to send a team of one sub-inspector and three constables to Mumbai to look for more clues in the case.

Confirming this to TOI, city police commissioner B Shivadhar Reddy said, "We are planning to send a local police team to Mumbai as part of our investigation, mostly by Monday evening or Tuesday. At the same time, we are also expecting a team from Mumbai police to arrive in the city. However, we have not received any communication from Mumbai police in the Sivatheja case so far."

Meanwhile, official sources said Sivatheja's death was caused by suffocation and the report of the postmortem that was performed at KGH did not find any signs of poisoning prima facie. However, to rule out the possibility of poisoning entirely, the viscera have been sent for clinical analysis. "The clinical analysis report is yet to arrive," a reliable source revealed on Monday.

Meanwhile, YVR Reddy, a distant relative of Sivatheja residing in Vizag, said that Sivatheja neither had any friends nor foes in Vizag. He said that the IIT scholar was an introvert and the two or three friends he had were all settled abroad.

He also pointed out that Sivatheja did not have any problems with his family too as the parents, particularly his father, had given him full freedom and support in his education.

"We were all shocked to hear of his demise. We are also puzzled about his decision to come to Vizag and take the extreme step. He was an intelligent guy and the nature of the suicide and the steps he took to resort to kill self is an example of his intelligence," Reddy added.

Sivatheja's face was found wrapped with a thick polythene sheet taped at the neck and his fingers too were taped with plastic tape. "The family feels he may have resorted to the extreme step because of some mental depression or pressure in his studies," Reddy said.

Meanwhile, his family members, who refused to be identified, revealed that the last person Sivatheja might have spoken to could be his cousin brother (son of his mother's sister), V Siva Santan Reddy, a PhD scholar studying in electrical engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

"Sivatheja might have spoken to Santan for nearly 20 minutes on last Sunday (January 12). Perhaps Sivatheja's last phone call was to Santan Reddy," a source pointed out. Before coming to Vizag, Sivatheja reportedly drew about Rs 5,000 from a Canara Bank ATM somewhere, including Mumbai, the sources added.

However, when TOI tried to track down Sivatheja's academic details on the IIT Mumbai website, it threw up three research projects in the name of Sivatheja M and some other students in 2009 and 2010.

223 - IIT-B student's 'strange' death baffles doctors - TOI

IIT-B student's 'strange' death baffles doctors

Yogita Rao & Sulogna Mehta, TNN Jan 22, 2014, 04.05AM IST

MUMBAI: IIT-B's electrical engineering department held a condolence meeting in the memory of its PhD student M Siva Theja (26) on Tuesday. Several students, faculty members and the staff from his department were present at the meet.

Siva was found dead in a lodge in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. His face was covered with a polythene sheet and taped at the neck; his fingers too were taped. While the Vizag police are yet to ascertain the nature of the death, they have not sent their team for investigation to Mumbai. Doctors at Vizag's King George Hospital termed the death "strange and rare".

A hospital source said, "The plastic was removed from the mouth when the body was brought to the mortuary for post-mortem, the plastic cover was removed from the mouth. However, the transparent adhesive tape was rolled onto each finger of both the hands and no suicide note was found. But the door was bolted from inside." Though doctors have confirmed that the death was due to suffocation, they are awaiting the viscera report, which will take two to four weeks, to rule out poisoning.

An IIT-B official said Siva had switched off his cellphone when he was on the institute campus. "The last connectivity was tracked down to the institute. It is difficult to determine when he left the city."

Siva was pursuing research in network and control theory and was about to submit a thesis this summer. "He was in the advanced stage of his research and one of our brightest candidates. He was good at academics and was popular in the department," said professor Ajay Karandikar, head of department. Siva's death is a great loss to the department, he saidas he had a promising career

But very few students from the hostel where he stayed knew him, claimed a hostel council member. He stayed on the fourth floor of hostel 14's A wing. Another student said Siva had already accepted a post doctoral position, before the news of his death shocked them all.

221 - IIT Student Found Dead in Vizag Lodge

IIT Student Found Dead in Vizag Lodge

By Express News Service - VISAKHAPATNAM

Published: 19th January 2014 08:14 AM

Last Updated: 19th January 2014 08:14 AM

A 26-year-old student of IIT-Mumbai was found dead in a hotel room under suspicious circumstances at Dwarakanagar here on Saturday.

Police suspect suicide but did not find any suicide note on him. The youth’s parents, who live in Hyderabad, have been informed of the death.

S Sivateja checked into Room No. 102 of Ashwini Lodge at Dwarakanagar on Thursday (Jan 16) afternoon.

He came out on Friday asking the staff for a water bottle but had  not been seen ever since. When the staff went to his room to enquire about lunch and dinner, he did not respond.

The room cleaning staff went to the room on Saturday morning around 8.30 but the door bell nor a hard banging on the door elicited no  response.

Suspecting something wrong, the hotel staff informed the Four Town police who broke open the door and found Sivateja’s body leaning on the bathroom door.

His head was wrapped with a plastic cover which was taped around the neck, making its removal difficult. The police suspect that the deceased tried to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself using the plastic cover.

Upon searching him, the police found the dismantled components of his cellphone, an identity card and other personal belongings. They reassembled the components of the cellphone, got the phone number and informed his parents of his death.

Speaking to Express, Sivateja’s relative Rami Reddy said that Sivateja was a brilliant student and was doing PhD in electronics and communications engineering at IIT-Mumbai.

When he did not respond to their calls, his parents went to Mumbai from Hyderabad on January 16 and lodged a missing complaint with the police. They learnt that he had not been seen on the campus since January 13, Reddy said.

Doubts are being raised over the reasons for his death as Sivateja could have committed suicide in his room on the campus in Mumbai if he wanted to and had no reason to go all the way to Vizag.

Four Town police sub-inspector S Somayajulu told Express that Sivateja’s parents  lodged a missing complaint with the Mumbai police a couple of days ago after he had gone out of contact with them.

While the police are yet to ascertain Sivateja’s purpose of visit to Vizag, they suspect that he might have come to meet someone as he took a double bedroom though he came alone. He carried a small luggage and paid an advance of Rs 500 towards room rent.

Basing on preliminary investigation,  police think Sivateja committed suicide. Tbey launched an investigation to determine the right cause of death.

220 - Hyderabad youth commits suicide in Visakhapatnam lodge - TNN

Hyderabad youth commits suicide in Visakhapatnam lodge

TNN Jan 19, 2014, 04.15AM IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: A 26-year-old PhD scholar from Hyderabad was found dead at a lodge in the RTC complex area here on Saturday after the police broke open the doors of his room following an alert by the lodge staff.

The youth has been identified as M Siva Teja, the second child of Rajasekhar Reddy, a private sector employee residing in Hyderabad's ECIL area. His parents originally belong to a village near Pulivendula in Kadapa district. Teja was doing his PhD at IIT-Mumbai.

Though the police suspect it to be a case of suicide, they are also investigating the murder angle as the scholar's face was found covered with a thick polythene sheet and they did not find any suicide note. The cops are also looking into the possibility of a love affair going awry as a reason for his suicide and they suspect the girl could be from the city.

According to sources, Siva Teja had landed in the city on January 16 and checked in at Aswini Lodge opposite the RTC complex in the Asilmetta area. Though he has relatives in the city, he chose to stay in the lodge. He was last spotted by the lodge staff on Friday morning when he stepped out to buy a water bottle.

The staff at the lodge knocked on his doors during lunch and dinner time on Friday but didn't get any response. Sensing something amiss when Siva Teja failed to respond to theirk door nocks on Saturday morning too, the staff immediately informed the Dwaraka Zone cops, who rushed to the lodged and broke open the doors of the room.

The cops, led by inspector Elia Babu and sub-inspector Soma Raju found the youth's body in a totally decomposed state in the bathroom. What was even more shocking was that the student's face was covered up to the neck in a polythene sheet and wrapped with a plastic tape and the fingers of both his hands too were taped.

According to sources, Siva Teja remained incommunicado since early this month and his worried parents had rushed to Mumbai after he could not be contacted over the past few days. A missing complaint was lodged at Andheri police station on January 13.

According to Siva Teja's relative Venkat Ram, who resides in Vizag, Teja had worked briefly in a Bangalore-based firm after completing his MTech and later quit his job to take up his PhD at IIT-Mumbai. "He last spoke to his parents on January 12 and since January 13 his phone was switched off. They sent his friend, who also studies at IIT Mumbai, to look for him but he found his room locked. Worried Teja's parents immediately rushed to Mumbai, spoke to the IIT Mumbai top brass and lodged a police complaint," said Venkat Ram.

The deceased youth's parents have rushed to Vizag after being informed by Vizag police about the incident. Siva Teja's body has been shifted to King George Hospital for autopsy.