IISc student ends life over fear of Covid-19 infection

A 24-year-old student at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) allegedly killed himself on campus on Tuesday morning over fears that a fellow student had infected him with Covid-19. Ironically, this fellow student has now tested negative.

The deceased has been identified as Sandeep Markande, a native of Bhilai, Chattisgarh, who had enrolled at IISc last year and was studying for a Master of Technology degree at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences.

Authoritative sources said that Markande had sent a suicide note by e-mail to friends living in other states on Monday night. Police said that in the note, he had expressed fears that he had developed symptoms of the disease, which was leading him to take his own life.

“The note was not taken seriously at the time as Markande was known to have a history of depression. However, when he was not reachable by phone in the morning, institute authorities were alerted. They found that he had hanged himself,” a source said.

Another source said that Markande had first become apprehensive at the thought of having contracted the disease when a fellow hostel-mate and student developed a fever and cough and was isolated as a suspected Covid-19 sufferer.

“He was said to have become agitated as he had spent some 15 minutes talking to this suspect case,” the source said. However, on Tuesday evening, the test results came back as negative, the source added.

The institute, hit by student suicides in the past, has started a counselling service plus a peer support group made up of student volunteers. But Markande appears to have fallen through the cracks.

A student said Markande was battling feelings of isolation as none of his institute friends was back in the city.