Student ends life, cops suspect Facebook friends

City police are on the lookout for two girls for allegedly harassing a 19-year-old engineering student who committed suicide at his paying guest accommodation in Kariyammana Agrahara, Marathahalli in east Bengaluru on Saturday.

Atish S Nayak was a native of Jewargi town in Kalaburagi district and was pursuing his first year in civil engineering at a private college in Marathahalli. Atish was staying in a paying guest accomodation along with his friends, the police said.

The incident occurred when Atish stayed back at the PG while his roommates went to attend college. When the roommates returned in the afternoon, the door was locked from inside. As there was no response they broke open the door and found Atish hanging from the ceiling fan.

Preliminary inquiries by police revealed that Atish had made friends with two girls on Facebook recently and was chatting with them regularly. Atish might have been blackmailed by his Facebook friends identified as Soniya and Prakruthi, which could have led to him taking the extreme step, the police said quoting one of Atish's family members.

The police who conducted inquiries among Atish’s classmates and lecturers came to know that he was of late seen busy on his mobile phone and chatting on social media.

Atish's father Subhash Naik, in his complaint said Atish was often depressed in the last two months. However, the family did not take it seriously until they received a call from the paying guest owner, Gopala Reddy informing about Atish’s demise.

The Marathahalli police who are investigating the case said they are yet to identify Atish’s Facebook friends and call records are being analysed to identify the girls in question.