NIFT student found dead in apartment

Police said that the victim identified as Vishal Jaiswal (20), a native of Bihar, was a resident of Padmanabhan IAS Street, Kamaraj Nagar, West Thiruvanmiyur. Vishal was studying second year in the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) at Taramani and was sharing the rented accommodation with his friend Praveen Kumar (20), also from Bihar and a second year student specialising in accessories designing at the NIFT and Pradeep. He was in a depressed mood for the past few days following a failed relationship. 

Meanwhile, the institute had declared a three-day holiday on March 11, 12 and 13 in view of Holi. While Praveen went to his friend’s place in Thoraipakkam, Vishal stayed back. Meanwhile Simran Mehandi, a native of Odisha and a student of NIFT, who was staying in the hostel on the institution’s campus, had come to meet Praveen during the holidays. However, the time of her visit to Praveen’s apartment was yet to be confirmed. 

Police further added that on March 12 at 3.27 pm, Praveen had received a call from Simran asking him to come to the apartment. Praveen immediately rushed to his room only to find Vishal lying unconscious. Soo, Praveen along with Pradeep and a few other friends rushed Vishal to a private hospital nearby from where he was taken to Government Royapettah Hospital. However, doctors declared him ‘brought dead.’ 

Police said a post-mortem has been done and the report was yet to come.

The police are now interrogating both Simran and Praveen to gather more details in the case. Interestingly, as per the police complaint, Vishal committed suicide by hanging. But Simran told the police that she had found him unconscious on the bed. A senior police officer said, “Vishal was depressed. The cause of his death can be confirmed only after the post-mortem report”. 

Vishal’s kin in the city are assisting the police in the probe even as his family members are yet to arrive in the city. 

Meanwhile, in a separate case, Imansu Kalra (25), a second year MBA student of IIT Madras drowned in the sea off Akkarai beach on March 11. The victim was a native of Haryana and had gone to the beach with two of his friends. Kalra was reportedly in an inebriated condition when he drowned. Though his friends searched for Imansu, they could not trace him. His body later surfaced on the shore on March 12, police said.