Daijiworld Media Network - Vasco
Vasco, Feb 3: A 20-year-old woman student died by suicide in her hostel room at the BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa campus late on Sunday evening, marking the sixth such case reported at the institute. This is the first recorded instance involving a woman student at the campus.
The deceased, identified as Vaishnavi, was a native of Bengaluru and was pursuing a degree in electronics and communication engineering.
According to Vasco sub-division Superintendent of Police Gurudas Kadam, the incident is believed to have occurred sometime on Sunday afternoon, though it came to light only later in the evening.
Police were alerted at around 10 pm after the student failed to respond to repeated calls from her hostel mates. “The campus public relations officer informed the Verna police station after the student did not respond to her colleagues,” Kadam said. Vaishnavi was staying in a third-floor room of the hostel.
As the room was locked from the inside, police had to break open the door. Following standard procedure, authorities conducted a panchnama at the scene along with an inquest panchanama. The body was later sent to the South Goa district hospital in Margao for medico-legal examination.
A case of unnatural death has been registered under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Police said the postmortem report confirmed that the cause of death was constriction of the neck by ligature material.
Further investigation into the matter is being carried out by Police Inspector Anand Shirodkar.