Parents Visit IIT-Kharagpur To Meet Son, Find Him Hanging In His Hostel Room

Kolkata: Any tragedy is heart-wrenching, but what the parents of an engineering student recently experienced has few parallels.

The parents turned up at IIT Kharagpur to visit their son on Sunday, only to find him dead in his hostel room, police said.

Identified as Shawn Malik, the 21-year-old third-year Electrical Engineering student was a resident of Azad Hall hostel.

According to IIT officials, Malik’s parents had to call security guards to forcibly open the door of the hostel room after he did not respond to repeated calls.

“The reason for the extreme step was not clear. We have not found any suicide note. The boy’s parents brought food for him like they did every Sunday. They were the first to see the body hanging,” IIT Kharagpur Director Amit Patra said.

Shawn was very good in studies, Patra informed.

“Nothing suspicious was found. Malik had good relations with teachers,” the institute director said.

He said that a lab assistant had died a few days ago, “but there’s no connection.”

Malik’s body was sent for autopsy to Medinipur Medical College.

According to a senior police officer, the post-mortem had been completed, and the process was videographed.

Police investigation is underway.

A number of incidents of student deaths have taken place in recent years at IIT Kharagpur. Last June, Devika Pillai was found hanging at the college campus.

In October 2023, fourth-year Electrical Engineering student K Kiran Chandra was found dead. In 2022, Faizan Ahmed was found dead.