South Collector raises ‘suicide contagion’ concern
Vasco/Margao: A 26-year-old second year PhD student of BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa campus Arjun Sabu was found dead in a rented accommodation at Verna on Wednesday.
The Verna police have recovered a note from the scene and are further investigating the case to find out the circumstances leading to Sabu’s death.
This is the seventh suspicious death of a student studying in the institute, located at Sancoale in South Goa, since December 2024. Sources said that in the earlier six incidents, the students had allegedly ended life within the campus.
According to information received from Verna police, the incident came to light at 11.30 am on Wednesday. On receipt of information, police rushed to the spot to find Sabu, originally from Kerala, hanging. Police recovered a purported suicide note from the site.
Police said that Sabu’s family members have been informed about the incident and added that they will reach Goa soon.
Following the news of Sabu’s death, an atmosphere of anxiety and fear spread among students and teachers in the institute.
Meanwhile, a district-level monitoring committee, headed by South Goa District Collector Egna Cleetus warned about a possible “suicide contagion” – a phenomenon wherein sensationalised exposure to such tragedies can trigger imitative behaviour among vulnerable youth.
Addressing media at her office in South Goa Collectorate, Cleetus said, “Though the cause of death will be established once police investigation and post-mortem reports are received, the preliminary findings state that it is a case of suicide.”
She said that the district administration earnestly appeals to all stakeholders to normalise help-seeking behaviour and urged students to utilise new resources without stigma to maintain a psychologically secure academic environment.
It may be noted that a fact-finding committee was formed to examine the incidents.
A comprehensive report of the committee, which was submitted to the state government in February, stated that such incidents stem from complex, multi-dimensional factors. The report suggested an urgent overhaul of the campus’ mental health ecosystem.
Tasked with evaluating the institutional support mechanisms, the committee’s primary findings highlighted the pressure of highly competitive academic environment. The panel found that students were navigating severe stress fuelled by heavy academic workloads, intense performance expectations, social isolation, emotional vulnerability and sleep disturbances.
The report noted that suicide could not be attributed to a single cause, but rather a culmination of these compounding environmental and psychological factors.
The committee had also found that while basic counselling and peer-support systems existed on the campus, they were vastly insufficient. The findings underscored an urgent need for a substantial expansion in counselling capacity, deeper faculty sensitisation and robust preventive wellness initiatives to catch students before they reached a crisis point.
Prompted by the findings, BITS Pilani Goa has taken swift action, states a note released by the institute. During an April 2026 review meeting, the dean confirmed the successful implementation of the panel’s recommendations, it states.
The institute has drastically augmented its support framework, hiring additional mental health professionals, and launched a dedicated 24×7 support facility for students, the note states.
