A PhD student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, (IIT-Kanpur) was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her hostel room on Thursday morning. It was the third such incident in the institute in a month.

According to the police, the research scholar, Priyanka, hailed from Dumka in Jharkhand. The matter came to light after Priyanka’s father, Narendra Jaiswal, contacted the manager of her hostel, informing her that his daughter was not answering his calls.

When the hostel manager, Ritu Pandey, reached her hostel room, she found the door locked from inside. When Priyanka did not open the door for a long time, Pandey was forced to break into her room. Pandey found the student hanging from a ceiling fan and informed police immediately.

Police officials along with a forensics team rushed to the spot, recovered the body and sent it for a post-mortem examination.

According to sources at the IIT-Kanpur administration, Priyanka had joined the institution’s PhD programme in chemical engineering on December 29, 2023.

Priyanka’s family was informed about the incident and they left for Kanpur soon after.

Last December, a research scholar was found hanging from a fan inside her hostel room in IIT Kanpur on Tuesday. Pallavi Chilka was pursuing her postdoctoral research from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur. As per a report by PTI news agency, a cleaning staff had knocked on Chilka's door late in the afternoon and there was no response. The person then peeped inside and found Chilka hanging.

Source: India Today