Depressed IIT-Hyderabad student leaps to death from hostel building

Driven by depression, a 20-year-old B Tech student from the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad (IIT-H) allegedly leaped to death from the hostel building on the campus on Tuesday (October 29).

According to the police, this episode is the third suicide by a student of the prestigious institution this year.

Pichikala Siddarth, who is a third-year computer science and engineering student hailing from Hyderabad, jumped off from the third floor of the hostel building at around 3.25 am.

Security staff and a few students who noticed it rushed him to a private hospital. He was later shifted to a corporate hospital where he died without responding to treatment, Sangareddy district Deputy Superintendent of Police P Sridhar Reddy said.

Also read: Amrita college student suicide: Four days on, no arrests yet

According to police, before committing the extreme act, Siddartha sent emails to some of his friends saying he did not find life interesting and that his death will not make a big
difference to the world. “Life rather seems depressing. I have no clue how my future is going to be. I have been feeling this for the past two months. Also, the courses are going bad for me. I could not concentrate well…” he purportedly wrote in the mail to his friends.

The institute, located in Sangareddy district about 50 km from here, condoled the death of Siddarth. “IIT Hyderabad Faculty, staff and students extend their deepest condolences to the family, friends and other near and dear ones of the deceased student. This is indeed an irreparable loss to the institute and the family. May his soul rest in peace,” it said in a release.

Siddarth is the third student of IIT-Hyderabad to take his life this year.

Earlier in July, Mark Andrew Charles, a native of Varanasi District in Uttar Pradesh and a final year Masters student, committed suicide by hanging. On January 31, M Anirudh, a third-year Mechanical and Aerospace engineering student ended his life by jumping off
the hostel building.