Youth kills self in IIT-Bombay campus

A 20-year-old youth, son of an IIT professor, allegedly committed suicide in the institute’s campus after growing “irritated” with advice from family members.

Friends of 20-year-old Chaitanya Warekar, who died on Friday, have told the police that he was irritated with family members advising him on different issues of life and on numerous occasions had expressed a desire to committ suicide.

Chaitanya, had been adopted from Hubli, Karnataka by Narayan Punekar (58), a professor at IIT Bombay, when he was five years old. He had been adopted because Chaitanya’s parents had died when he was an infant and there was no one to take care of him, and Mr Punekar’s wife is Chaitanya’s maternal aunt, the police said.

“Chaitanya was studying in FyBSC in SIES College. Two years ago he dropped out because of poor attention in his study,” a police official said. “On Friday at his home in IIT campus Anand building, his sister and the professor’s biological daughter who got married recently and had settled in the USA came to Mumbai. They were having talking about how Chaitanya got irritated easily. His sister was telling him that his father is getting old now and therefore being a son he should shoulder the responsibility of the family and be supportive towards his parents,” he added.

“On that issue he got into an argument, took a knife and slit his throat, hand and stabbed himself in the chest. The family took him to the hospital but he was declared dead on admission,” he added.