CHENNAI: The decomposed body of a third-year ECE student was found in her room at the hostel of a private university in Enathur near Kancheepuram on Thursday evening. Suspecting suicide due to personal reasons, the police said the girl could have died earlier this week.
The Kancheepuram Taluk police identified the deceased as Nikitha (19), a native of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Her father is working in the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams in Tirupati and her mother a homemaker.
The police said Nikitha, who was staying in a single room, had not come out of for two days. After a foul smell started emanating from the room, the hostel authorities broke open the door and found her dead inside.
Following the incident, fellow students staged a protest outside the college, prompting the police to deploy personnel on the premises. The students demanded a swift and thorough probe into her death. Senior district police officers visited the spot and assured them that necessary action would be taken.
The police said a preliminary inquiry revealed Nikitha was in a relationship with a man from her native town. For the past few days, the two have been arguing with each other, police said. Frustrated over this, the girl could have killed herself, they added.
On Friday afternoon, the body was handed over to her parents after a postmortem at a government hospital in Kancheepuram. Police have registered a case and are investigating the circumstances surrounding her death.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on TN’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)
