Yet another student dies by suicide on BITS Pilani campus

NT Reporter

Vasco

In yet another case of suicide on the campus of BITS Pilani at Sancoale in South Goa, a third-year engineering student was found dead in her hostel room late Sunday night, taking the total number of such deaths on the institute’s campus to four in the last 14 months, while two cases involved unnatural death, said officials.

The deceased has been identified as Vishnavi Jitesh (20), a third-year Electronics and Communication Engineering student from Bengaluru.

Verna police said they received an alert around 10 pm and found the student unresponsive in her hostel room. She was found hanging from the ceiling fan with a bed sheet around her neck, said a senior police official. A post-mortem examination has been conducted and an investigation is under way, the official said.

South Goa District Collector Egna Cleetus said the police have been instructed to conduct a comprehensive probe into the case.

The higher educational institute has been rocked by a series of suicides since 2024. In the first case, Om Priyan Singh, 21, a second-year BE computer science and MSc chemistry student from Uttar Pradesh, died by suicide in
December 2024.

Then in March 2025, Atharv Desai, 20, a third-year dual degree student, ended his life in his hostel room.

In May 2025, Krishna Kasera from Lucknow, a second-year student, pursuing a dual degree in MSc chemistry and BE electrical and instrumentation, was discovered hanging from a window grill in his room.

Another student Kushagra Jain died in August 2025 in a mysterious condition and the case was registered as an unnatural death. Rishi Nair, yet another student of the institute, was found dead in a similar condition in September 2025.

The sixth death on Sunday night and the fourth case of suicide on the institute’s campus has raised concerns about the mental health of the students.

The issue of repeated student suicides on the institute’s campus has been previously raised in the state legislative assembly, with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stating in the House that examination-related stress had been cited as a contributing factor in several cases.

The incident has once again brought to focus student mental health and academic pressure in higher educational institutions, prompting renewed calls for strengthened counselling services and preventive mental health measures on campuses.