By Ravik Bhattacharya and Raajnandini Mukherjee
FAMILY MEMBERS of a 25-year-old PhD scholar who allegedly died by suicide after levelling allegations of ragging at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), in Kalyani, Nadia, filed a police complaint on Saturday.
The police have launched an investigation.
Anamitra Roy was found unconscious after allegedly attempting suicide inside a laboratory of the institute on Thursday evening and was admitted to AIIMS, Kalyani, where he died on Friday.
“We have received a complaint from a cousin of the victim. A case has been registered. Senior officers (in the rank of DSP) visited the spot We are investigating. The body has been handed over to the family after post-mortem examination,” said Aashish Maurya, Superintendent of Ranaghat Police District in Nadia.
Rishikesh Roy, a cousin of Anamitra, said, “His social media post tells it all. How he was a victim of ragging and how the authorities ignored his complaints. There is a conspiracy behind his death. We want the culprits to be punished.”
Family members received the body and left for their home in Shyamnagar, North 24 Parganas.
In an online post earlier on Thursday, Roy detailed how he has been dealing with depression and considered suicide from a young age and only recently found out that he was autistic.
“I was never made for this world… But I can’t do this anymore. I give up. May I find the peace in death that I never found in life,” read a note posted by the student — Anamitra Roy — online.
A spokesperson of IISER in Kalyani told The Indian Express on Saturday, “A fact-finding committee has been formed to look into the matter. So far, ragging has been ruled out since Anamitra was a student of the institute for the past eight years. This is more likely a case of intra-lab dispute. We have submitted all the details to the police and are cooperating with them. Both internal and external investigations are underway and we will be able to come to a conclusion once the fact-finding committee submits its report.”