PU student found dead in college hostel toilet

A 17-year-old pre-university student was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a toilet in his college hostel on Saturday evening.

Police said the deceased has been identified as Sarthak Puranik, a resident of Dharwad. He was studying in the Sri Chaitanya PU College in Bellandur for the past two years and was staying in the hostel.

According to the police, the incident, which took place between 7.30 pm and 8 pm on Saturday, came to light when the student failed to return from the washroom after several hours. On realising that the toilet was locked from the inside, the other hostel residents peeped through the window and found that Puranik had collapsed and was unconscious.

They informed the police, who broke open the door and rushed Puranik to a hospital, but the doctors declared him brought dead. “The cause of death is unclear and we are waiting for the postmortem report,” a police officer said.

The body was handed over to Puranik’s parents after the postmortem on Sunday.

“We have certain doubts regarding the boy’s death as it does not look like a suicide. The doctors who conducted the postmortem have collected viscera samples from the body and have sent it to the forensic science laboratory for examination. We can’t come to a conclusion without the postmortem and FSL reports. Puranik’s parents have not made any allegations against anybody,” an investigating officer said.