A fourth year IIT student fell off the 6th floor of a hostel inside the campus and died on Thursday evening.
The electrical engineering student, Aniket Ambhore, 22, stayed in hostel 1 and fell from hostel 13, which is far off. Another student saw him falling and alerted the warden who took him to the IIT hopsital first and then to the Rajawadi hospital in Ghatkopar where he was declared brought dead.
The police have not ruled out suicide or foul play. "We are crosschecking with eye-witnesses. His mobile call data records too will be checked to ascertain if he was talking on the phone when the accident happened," Yadavrao Jadhav, senior inspector, Powai police station, said. "We have registered a case of accidental death for now."
Though the IIT administration termed the death an "accident", students said the railing in the hostel is high and an accidental fall in unlikely. Ambhore used to stay in hostel 13 till July last year.
Rashmi Udaykumar, the PRO of II-B, said: "He was said to be speaking to his father on the mobile phone and holding an umbrella when he fell down. We are waiting for the police report."
According to his classmates, it was possible that Ambhore was stressed as he had a backlog of several subjects from the second and third year to clear. "He was in the Academic Rehabilitation Program (ARP), meant to support students who lag behind in studies," a classmate said. "He was apprehensive that he might get an 'extension' (loss of a year) because of indequate credits."
Another classmate said: "He was a good student but unable to focus on his studies for quite some time now. He was so anxious and disoriented for the past few days that his parents came down to the hostel on Tuesday to spend sometime with him."
Urjit Yajnik, the dean of student affairs, said he was undergoing some psychiatric treatment, but refused to elaborate, citing confidentiality. He updated his FB status three hours before his death. His parents could not be contacted on Friday as they were busy with the cremation.
Ambhore, a resident of Airoli, Navi Mumbai, studied at the DAV Public School in Airoli and MH Junior College in Thane before joining the IIT. His mother Sunita is a lecturer in a Navi Mumbai college and his father a manager in a public sector bank. He has a younger sister.
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