JOIN USA 26-year-old postgraduate medical student at St John’s Medical College Hospital was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room on Friday.
B Nandeesh, a student of final year MD (Community Medicine) was last seen alive on Thursday afternoon. The suicide came to light when Nandeesh did not turn up for the weekly test in the morning and his mobile phone was switched off. One of his classmates rushed to his hostel room only to find it locked from inside. The door was broke open only to find Nandeesh hanging with a nylon rope. In a one-line purported death note found on a table in the room, Nandeesh has stated that he was responsible for his death.
The police seemed baffled on the cause for the suicide. “We have absolutely no clue. Enquiries with his teachers, classmates and relatives have not yielded anything. They appear to know little,” a sub-inspector of police investigating the case said. Students said Nandeesh was not involved in any love affair.
Students at the campus were taken aback by the death of Nandeesh. Dr Arvind Kasthuri, one of Nandeesh’s teachers, described his death as a “valuable loss to community health”.
“What a brilliant student he was. He always kept to himself and never meddled in other people’s affairs. Above all, he was a dedicated doctor who longed to serve society,” Dr Kasthuri told Deccan Herald.
Nandeesh had chosen to study community medicine when he could have opted for more lucrative branches of medicine.
“He was one of the rare students who are passionate about social service,” Dr Bobby Joseph, another of his teachers, said.
Such was his commitment that he was the first one to agree to visit violence-hit Assam for relief work. “He served the people there with absolute care and compassion during his two-week stay. He was an inspiration for other doctors,” Dr Kasthuri said.
Nandeesh studied MBBS at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute and secured 3,200th rank in the All India Postgraduate Medical Entrance Examination. He should have completed his MD course in February 2013. B Gowreesh, an MTech student and brother of Nandeesh, flew from Delhi after getting to know of the suicide. Nandeesh’s mother Sukanya reportedly fainted upon learning the news.
His father, C Basavarajappa, an assistant director with the Department of Agriculture at Bhadravathi, could not muster courage to come to Bangalore to receive the body, said Shivumurthappa, his colleague. According to Gowreesh, their parents hail from Tarikere taluk of Chikmagalur district and are settled in Shimoga.
The post mortem was conducted at the St John’s Hospital in the evening and the body was taken to Shimoga. The cremation is scheduled for Saturday morning.
A case of unnatural death has been registered by the police.