Charred body of ISRO scientist’s son recovered from IIT Madras campus

Chennai | The charred remains of a temporary staff member of IIT Madras, Unnikrishnan Nair, who is the son of an ISRO scientist and hails from Ernakulam in Kerala, was found in the hockey ground within the IIT campus last night.

Nair returned to the IIT campus on Thursday only and within hours his body was discovered. The Kottapuram police reached the spot and after preliminary investigation handed the body to Royapettah Government Hospital for post mortem analysis.

The Police Station officer said that a case was registered and initial probe points at suicide by pouring petrol from a small bottle.

The forensic department has collected water bottles and traces of petrol from the crime scene.

An eleven page suicide note was also recovered from his residence in which he said: “I do not know what I am doing. I am very depressed. No one is responsible for my death.”

A case under section 174 of CrPC has been registered.

Kotturpuram police have already questioned two IIT students, who were staying with him — Anil Kumar from Kerala and Prakash from Salem but the police when contacted said that it was routine questioning.

IIT Madras in a statement said, “An unfortunate and tragic incident occurred in IIT Madras on Thursday involving a temporary project staff. The project staff whose body was found joined the institute in April 2021 and was staying outside the campus.”

“We are shocked and grieved and convey our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the departed soul. The police are investigating the incident and the institute is fully cooperating with the investigation.”

Unnikrishnan Nair’s father Reghu is a senior scientist with the ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram.

IANS

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