Family Alleges ‘Ragging’ For Suspicious Death Of Odisha Student At IIT-Hyderabad

Bhubaneswar/Sambalpur: Family members of the 21-year-old girl from Odisha’s Sonepur, who was found hanging in her hostel room at IIT-Hyderabad on Monday, said they suspect that she might have taken the extreme step due to ragging.

Mamita Naik, a resident of Dumuri village under Jatesingha gram panchayat, was a first-year post-graduate student and had joined the master’s programme in civil engineering on July 26. She had graduated from VSSUT Burla in 2021-22.

Some students found her hanging in the room around 10 pm.

“We know our daughter well. She was mentally very strong. It is not possible that she would kill herself over financial issues as being claimed by police,” Jagyenswar Naik, who has gone to Hyderabad to bring back the body, told TOI.

Mamita’s father Dukhishyam Naik is a marginal farmer. Among her three brother, one is a BTech graduate. Jagyenswar added his elder brother had studied up to Class VI but was always in favour of his children’s education.

Sangareddy (rural) sub-inspector of police M Rajesh Naik told reporters that the postmortem report revealed that it was a case of suicide. The viscera will be sent for a lab analysis, he said, adding that a case of suspicious death has been registered.

A suicide note was also recovered from her room in which the student scribbled a two-line statement in Odia, saying that nobody was responsible for her death and that she was under severe mental pressure, police sources said.

Mamita is the second IIT-Hyderabad student to have died by suicide in the last three weeks, and the fourth over the last one year.