Bengaluru IISc Student Kills Self Fearing He’d Contracted Coronavirus

Bengaluru: A 24-year-old M Tech student of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) reportedly committed suicide on Tuesday fearing that he had contracted coronavirus.

Sandeep Kumar Markande, from Chhattisgarh, had come in contact with a friend who showed some symptoms of COVID-19 and isolated himself.

He sent mails to friends in his native place, conveying the fear he may have contracted the virus and that he wanted to commit suicide.

Shocked to receive such a mail, some friends tried to reach out to him, but there was no response. “This is when one among them reached out to the IISc staff after which the security guards on campus were asked to check his room by the institute’s officials when he was found dead,” an officer from Sadashivanagar police station was quoted as saying by Indianexpress.com.

“We found him hanging in his room after the Institute’s authorities alerted us after Markande’s friend from Chhattisgarh informed the authorities,” the official informed.

Police has booked a case of unnatural death under the CrPc Act.

Sandeep had joined IISc in 2019 in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences.