IIM-A student suicide: Father claims someone from institute harassed the victim

The father of a student at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) who died allegedly by suicide on Sep 26 has claimed that someone from the institute harassed his son over an event that was to be sponsored by a private organization, police said on Sep 28.

The student, Akshit Hemant Bhukya (24), who was studying in the second year of the MBA program at IIM-A, was found hanging from the metal grille of the ventilator in his hostel room.

Without naming anyone, Bhukya's father claimed that someone from IIM-A was intimidating his son over the use of the institute's logo by a private institute for an event, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1) Himanshu Verma was quoted as saying.

“Based on what appears to be true at first, this does not seem to be the reason behind the extreme step taken by the student. But police will register an offense if something comes up in the ongoing investigation,” Verma said.

A Vastrapur police station official — part of an investigation team — was quoted as saying on Sep 28 that the matter related to the use of the IIM-A logo was resolved on Sep 20.

The private institute even withdrew the sponsorship and removed the video with the IIM-A logo it had uploaded on its Instagram page, according to him.

“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.

Patel added that the mortal remains of the IIM-A student have been handed over to his father.

The incident took place in the hostel situated on the new campus of IIM-A, and no suicide note was found. Police have sent the student's mobile phone and laptop for forensic analysis in a bid to get a clue on the tragedy, a police official was quoted as saying.