Open house sought with director after death of third-year IIT student on campus
Telegraph | 20 April 2026
A section of students at IIT Kharagpur has sought an open-house interaction with the institute’s director to discuss measures needed to prevent a recurrence of student deaths on campus.
Students associated with The Scholars Avenue, which describes itself as an independent student-run media body on the IIT campus, called for the open house a day after a third-year mechanical engineering student from Gujarat was found dead on the campus on Saturday morning.
Police suspect Jayveersinh Dodiya, 21, jumped to his death from the seventh-floor terrace of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence.
His death is the seventh on the campus in 15 months.
“We want an open-house session with the director to discuss measures needed to prevent such deaths from recurring. The death of a third-year student has deeply concerned us. We urge the IIT Kharagpur administration to put in place an effective mechanism to curb this spate of deaths,” said Shreyas Saran, a second-year undergraduate and managing editor of the platform.
“We have plans to hold the open house on April 29 or 30 as the director is not in the country and is supposed to return on April 29,” he said.
IIT director Suman Chakraborty has gone to the USA to attend a pan-IIT global event.
With students set to go home after April 30 following the end-semester examinations, they want the open house to be held before that, Saran said.
A Google form has been circulated among students, inviting them to submit questions they wish to raise before the director and indicate their preferred date for the open house.
“We are keen to know from the IIT administration what triggered the death of Dodiya. He had a good academic record. He was a member of the business club on the campus. We want to know whether he was under any pressure,” said a student who is a member of the platform.
Director Chakraborty said he is always ready to interact with students.
“I meet students periodically, and the IIT administration is always available to support them in any way possible. We did not receive any complaint indicating that the student was under stress, nor did the deceased visit any of our counselling facilities,” the director said on Sunday afternoon from Los Angeles.
We have constituted a fact-finding committee to ascertain the circumstances surrounding his death. The panel has been tasked with examining whether he was under any pressure and, if so, uncover the source, he said.
Last July, IIT Kharagpur introduced an induction programme for parents held alongside the orientation for first-year BTech students.
The move came amid alarm over a spate of student deaths on campus, with the institute aiming to urge parents not to exert pressure that could lead to mental stress for their children. However, the move has failed to prevent deaths.
Early on Sunday, Dodiya’s grandfather, along with family friends, arrived on campus. His parents could not travel to the campus as they were still in a state of trauma.
The post-mortem was carried out at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital on Sunday. The report is yet to come, said a police officer.
IIT Kharagpur’s Dean of Students’ Welfare, Arun Chakraborty, said they had reviewed CCTV footage from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence to understand the sequence of events leading to Dodiya’s death.
“CCTV footage showed that the student, a boarder of Nehru Hall of Residence, went to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hall of Residence, about two kilometres away, took a lift to the top floor and then jumped. We also tried to ascertain from family members whether he had spoken to them recently, but they did not provide any information,” he said.
He said teams have already been sent to the halls of residence to assess whether students require any stress support. “Since exams have just started, we wanted to know from students if they needed any help,” the Dean said.