Teen takes own life on IIT Powai campus

The 17-year-old daughter of a professor at IIT Powai allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the 14th floor of a building on the campus on Tuesday evening. The teenager had been receiving psychiatric treatment for suicidal tendencies.

The teenager, identified as Sesha Saroj Hemachandra Nandyala, was a class 12 student studying at the Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Powai. The girl is the daughter of N. Hemchandra, head of the industrial engineering department of the institute. Sesha was studying in the science stream.

Sources said, “Her father, in his statement, has said that he had discovered her diary four months ago in which she had written about wanting to commit suicide. She had written: ‘I want to jump off from the building and feel like committing suicide’. From that time onwards her parents and relatives started caring for her more. She was the only child of her parents. Her father had taken her to a psychiatrist so that some positive change would come in her and she would stop thinking of suicide. She started undergoing treatment and gave her class 12 exam too. She wanted to join JJ School of Arts and her parents supported her desire. She had started attending classes for preparing for the entrance.”

The police said, “On April 26, she came back from classes as usual around 7 pm, rested for a while and went outside her house around 8 pm. Her mother was preparing food when around 8.25 pm some neighbours went to her house and informed her about her daughter’s suicide attempt. They took her to Rajawadi Hospital, where she was declared dead.”

A woman who lives on the 13th floor in the Shivalik Building, from which Sesha jumped off, said, on the condition of anonymity, “I was sitting in the balcony at night and around 8.10 or 8.15 pm I saw somebody fall down and immediately heard a loud thud. I was to shocked and mustered all my courage and looked down, where I saw the girl lying in a pool of blood. Some children were playing down there at that time and they were very shocked and scared. Some youngsters called family members and some of them went to her house, which is just five minutes away from our building and called her parents.”

The police said, “The 14-storey building does not have any guard and, besides, the terrace didn’t even have a lock. The terrace wall is four feet in height so it’s really tough to jump off from the wall. We are investigating the case. Soon we will take detailed statements of the parents and investigate further. Her body’s post-mortem will be done on Thursday and given to her parents and relatives.”

In another incident of alleged student suicide, an 18-year-old engineering student from Indira Nagar committed suicide by slitting her wrist on Tuesday evening. Aachal Nagdave, a first year student, had failed in three papers in her second semester.