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IIT Hyderabad student found dead on Vizag beach, suicide suspected
His body was subsequently found on the beach on Tuesday morning by the Visakhapatnam police
The body of a 21-year-old tribal youth, a second-year engineering student the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad (IIT-H) missing since last week, was recovered from the Ramakrishnapuram beach in Visakhapatnam, police said on Tuesday.
The student had been missing from his IIT-H hostel room from July 18, which was the last day when his parents could contact him, Sangareddy (rural) inspector of police Sudhir Kumar said.
Initial investigations indicate that the student could have died by suicide.
The Sangareddy police traced his phone to Visakhapatnam where CCTV visuals showed him walking near the beach on July 19.
On Monday, the police reached Visakhapatnam along with his parents to search for him.
“We searched for him on the beach road and checked the CCTV footage to trace his movements but in vain,” Kumar said.
His body was subsequently found on the beach on Tuesday morning by the Visakhapatnam police and they in turn informed Sangareddy police officers looking into the missing persons case.
“His parents identified the body. After the post mortem, the body would be handed over to them,” Kumar said, adding that the student might have died by suicide out of depression.
It was not immediately clear how he took the extreme step.
A second year B-Tech (Mechanical) student at IIT-H, he had three backlogs in his subjects to clear for which he had stayed back on the campus after seeking the institute authorities’ permission.
The student last answered calls from his parents on July 18, saying he was in his hostel room and studying.
When his parents called him again on July 19, his phone was switched off.
“On July 19 evening, his father Umla Nayak, an attendant in a government department, went to the IIT-H hostel to enquire about his son. Hostel warden M Gopinath told him that he had left the hostel on July 17. Immediately, Nayak, along with the warden, lodged a complaint with the police,” the inspector said.
“After a preliminary probe, we found that he had left the IIT-H campus on July 17 afternoon. At 6.30 pm on the same day, he was spotted sipping a soft drink on a railway footbridge at the Lingampally station from where he later boarded a train to Secunderabad,” Kumar said.
He is said to have boarded the Janmabhoomi Express to Visakhapatnam from Lingampally station.
After tracking his mobile phone, police found that he was at the Visakhapatnam beach in the early hours of July 19. “After that, the whereabouts of the student could not be tracked,” Kumar said.
Police questioned the student's friends at the institute who said he was depressed after failing in three subjects and was struggling to clear them.
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