Two suicides in IIT-Madras: Woman student and wife of professor found dead

Wednesday was a black day for the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras after two women were found to have allegedly committed suicide on campus. [caption id=“attachment_2864694” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. CNN-News 18[/caption] According to a report in The Times of India, 47-year-old Vijayalakshmi, the wife of physics assistant professor Ganeshan, was found hanging inside her quarters around 3 pm. Around an hour or so later, a 34-year-old woman research scholar, P Maheshwari was found hanging in her hostel room, the police said, adding that the motive behind Maheshwari taking the extreme step was being probed. Condoling the scholar’s death, IIT-M announced full cooperation to officials in the case. “IIT-Madras, reports with deep sadness the death of a post-doctoral research scholar in the campus. The scholar’s family has been informed. The institute is taking necessary action and extending full cooperation to civil authorities,” it said in a statement. “The institute extends its deep felt condolences to the family and the near and dear ones of the scholar for the unfortunate, untimely and devastating loss,” it said without divulging any further details. Meanwhile, the Times of India report also note that mother-of-two Vijayalakshmi’s friends had described her as seeming to be ‘depressed and lonely’. After conducting a preliminary investigation, the police stated that she was worried about the health of her elder son and that “she had attempted suicide earlier”. IIT-M had witnessed suicide of two students in September and October last year. With inputs from PTI