ROURKELA: A second-year BTech student of the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room in MS Swaminathan hostel on Monday morning. The student was identified as 20-year-old Debmalya Roykarmakar from Agartala in Tripura. Prima facie, it appeared he died by suicide.
Debmalya’s body was seized by Sector-3 police with the help of forensic team and preserved at the morgue of Ispat General Hospital. His parents are likely to reach the campus on Tuesday morning following which autopsy will be conducted.
NIT-R registrar Prof Rohan Dhiman, who visited the hostel following the incident, said Debmalya was alone as his roommate had gone to Sambalpur on the weekend. After Debmalya did not respond to phone calls, his parents informed the hostel authorities at around 9.30 am. The caretaker for boarders found the room locked from inside. Subsequently, security personnel of the institute broke into the room and found the electronic and communication engineering student hanging from the ceiling fan.
Dhiman further informed that no suicide note was found from the spot but police took possession of the student’s laptop and mobile phone for clues and further investigation. After talking to his roommate and other students, it seems Debmalya led a reclusive life. He kept away from extra-curricular activities and largely confined himself to classes and hostel room.
“It is not clear what drove him to take the extreme step as he did not have any known medical history or mental health issue. We also checked for clues with the institute counselling services (ICS) of NIT-R. However, Debmalya never sought help or attended any counselling session for issues relating to academic, disciplinary, hostel or anything else,” the registrar added.
In May 2015, a second-year MTech student of NIT-R, identified as Atanu Santara of West Bengal, had taken the extreme step by hanging in his hostel room. Similarly, assistant professor in the Life Sciences department Rasu Jaybalan (37) and his wife Malini (35) took their own lives by consuming poison on NIT-R campus in August 2019.