IIMA student suicide: Father claims someone from institute was harassing son

Ahmedabad: The father of the IIMA student who died allegedly by suicide has claimed that someone from the institute was harassing his son over an event that was to be sponsored by a private organisation, police said on Saturday.

The student, Akshit Hemant Bhukya (24), who was studying in the second year of the MBA programme at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), was found hanging from the metal grille of the ventilator in his hostel room on Thursday.

“Bhukya’s father has claimed that someone from IIMA was harassing his son over the use of the IIMA logo by a private institute for an event,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1) Himanshu Verma said.

Prima facie, this does not appear to be the reason why the student took the extreme step, but police will register an offence if something comes up in the ongoing investigation, he said.

A Vastrapur police station official said that the matter related to the use of the IIMA logo was resolved on September 20. The private institute even withdrew the sponsorship and removed the video with the IIMA logo it had uploaded on its Instagram page.

“We even took statements of the students who were part of the team involved in the event and they have refused this to be the case,” said sub-inspector RL Patel, the investigation officer.

The police official said the mortal remains of the IIMA student have been handed over to his father.

The incident took place in the hostel situated on the new campus of IIMA, and no suicide note was found. Police have sent the student's mobile phone and laptop for forensic analysis to get a clue about the reasons for this tragedy, officials said.