Final-year anaesthesia student from TN found dead at Patiala hostel room

Mohit Khanna

Patiala, July 20

A female student from Government Medical College in Patiala died by suicide after she consumed poison. The body of the 28-year-old from Tamil Nadu was found in her hostel room on Saturday afternoon.

Prima facie, her friends have shared that she was stressed about her academic performance. An investigation into the matter has been initiated. No suicide note has been found in the room, and the family has been informed about her death. — Sarfaraz Alam, Patiala City SP

The deceased was a third-year anaesthesia student. The police said her family has been informed about her death, and they are expected to arrive here on Sunday. The police said the postmortem procedure would be completed once the family arrived.

Addressing mediapersons, SP City Sarfaraz Alam said, as per the preliminary statements, the deceased was depressed, the cause of which was not known. He said last night she returned to her hostel room, where she either consumed or injected poisonous substances, which led to her death.

He said, “Prima facie, her friends have shared that she was stressed about her academic performance. An investigation into the matter has been initiated. No suicide note has been found in the room, and the family has been informed about her death.”

Police post in charge Inderjit Singh stated that they received information about the death at around noon. The police said they reached the spot and took the body into their possession. Police officials said preliminary investigations revealed that the student had gone to her hostel room on Friday night as usual. However, on Sunday morning, she did not come out of her room, which was locked from the inside. They said her fellow students informed the hostel warden, who opened the door and found the student unconscious. They said she was taken to the hospital, where the doctors declared her dead.

The police have ruled out the possibility of harassment at the workplace. They said the student had completed her thesis recently; however, the computer she had saved the file on crashed, causing her a lot of anxiety. Police officials said she was able to complete it again, which is why the reason behind her step was not known.

The students have been complaining of strict behaviour by some medical college officials, long working hours, and low wages for interns.