52 suicide cases have been reported across eight IITs in the last 10 years, with IIT-Madras topping the list with 14, a report by The New Indian Express said, citing "a compilation of data accessed through several RTI responses".
According to the report, this year alone, IIT-M has reported four cases of student suicides, including the recent ‘mysterious’ death of Fathima Latheef, who was found hanging in her hostel room on November 09.
As the report mentions, second in the list of suicide cases is IIT-Kharagpur with 13 cases, followed by IIT-Guwahati with 8, Roorkee with 5, Delhi with 4 and Kanpur too with 4.
IIT-Hyderabad and IIT-Mumbai have reported 2-2 cases each, the report added.
IIT-Madras has been rocked by protests after Latheef, a first-year humanities student, allegedly committed suicide in its hostel on November 9. Her Kerala- based family has alleged a senior faculty was responsible for her taking the extreme step.
Father of the deceased student Abdul Latheef had called on Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police, seeking a fair, expeditious probe.
Political parties, including DMK, too staged protests over the incident and the case, handled by the local police initially, has been transferred to the Central Crime Branch.
The IIT-M has said it is extending full cooperation to the police investigation and appealed to all concerned not to initiate or spread any rumours about the institute and let the inquiry be completed.
(Inputs from PTI)