A student of Second Year Chemical Engineering course of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), who was found dead in the hostel bathroom with acute burns in the early hours of Thursday, later died at the Kasturba Hospital here. According to the police, the student was identified as Neham Agrawal (18) from Faridabad in Uttara Pradesh. Neham had gone to the common hostel bathroom at Block 10 of MIT after midnight. At around 12.30 a.m., some students noticed smoke coming from the bathroom. The students along with block caretakers, warden and security staff then broke open the door of the bathroom.
Neham was found there with acute burns. He was immediately rushed to the Kasturba Hospital, where he breathed his last at around 2.30 p.m. The authorities of MIT informed Neham’s parents about the incident.
Meanwhile, the students of the institute, who wanted to stage a protest over the incident as they thought that the university was passing it off as suicide, backed off after a message by the institute’s director G.K. Prabhu that the police were investigating the case. “We promise you that all necessary steps will be taken to bring out the truth,” he said in a message to the students. A case of unnatural death has been registered at the Manipal Police Station. Investigation is on.
Meanwhile, the police said that a bottle of kerosene was found in the bathroom, where Neham was found with acute burns. This was confirmed by the institute. K. Annamalai, Superintendent of Police, told The Hindu that the police were not suspecting any foul play in the case. “ Prima facie , it appears to be case of suicidal burning. Still, we will wait for the post-mortem report. Once, we get the post-mortem report, we will take a decision,” he said.
