A first-year student of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Ranchi was found dead inside his hostel room on Saturday night, prompting a campus protest over alleged failures by institute authorities to provide timely medical assistance.
Police said on Sunday that hostel inmates alerted the institute administration after finding the room locked from the inside. The deceased was identified as Aditya, a resident of Purnia district in Bihar, and was aged between 19 and 20 years.
Khelgaon Police Station in-charge Nirbhay Kumar said a preliminary investigation suggested that the student had died by suicide under examination pressure. The institute’s examinations had begun on October 8, according to the report. Police said the student’s body was sent to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for post-mortem examination.
The police statement establishes the current investigative position, but the circumstances surrounding the response after the student was found have become the focus of anger on campus. Several students alleged that the institute authorities failed to take the student to hospital in time.
Students who spoke to the media alleged that the institute ambulance did not have a driver available when assistance was needed. Vaibhav, a first-year student, also alleged that students were prevented from administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, while they were trying to help their classmate. These allegations have not been independently established in the report and are separate from the police’s preliminary assessment of the death.
The incident led hundreds of students to protest on the campus. They raised slogans against the institute administration and demanded justice for the deceased. Their complaints centre on institutional accountability, the availability of emergency transport and the role of hostel authorities during a medical crisis.
The case places attention on the emergency-response arrangements that residential educational institutions are expected to maintain for students living on campus. In this incident, the questions raised by students concern not only the cause of death but also what happened between the discovery of the student in his room and the decision to seek hospital care.
The police investigation and post-mortem examination are expected to clarify the medical circumstances of the death. The report does not provide a statement from IIIT Ranchi authorities responding to the students’ allegations, nor does it specify whether any disciplinary or administrative inquiry has been announced.
For the institute, the immediate pending issues include the outcome of the post-mortem examination, the police investigation and the response to the students’ demands regarding emergency preparedness and accountability on campus.
