Burnt body of ISRO scientist’s son recovered from IIT Madras campus (Representational image)
The charred remains of Unnikrishnan Nair, a temporary staff member of IIT Madras, son of an ISRO scientist and hailing from Ernakulam in Kerala, was found last night at the hockey ground of the IIT campus.
Nair returned to the IIT campus on Thursday itself and his body was found within a few hours. Kottapuram police reached the spot and after preliminary investigation handed over the body to Royapettah Government Hospital for post-mortem.
The station in-charge said that after registering an FIR, a case of suicide by pouring petrol from a small bottle has been registered in the FIR.
The forensic department has collected water bottles and petrol parts from the spot.
An eleven-page suicide note was also recovered from his residence in which he said: “I don’t know what I am doing. I am very sad. No one is responsible for my death.”
A case has been registered under section 174 of CrPC.
The Kotturpuram police has already questioned two IIT students living with him – Anil Kumar from Kerala and Prakash K from Salem, but when contacted the police said it was routine interrogation.
IIT Madras said in a statement, “An unfortunate and tragic incident occurred on Thursday at IIT Madras in which a temporary project worker was involved. The project worker whose body had joined the institute in April 2021 and was living outside the campus.”
“We are shocked and saddened and express our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and associates of the departed soul. Police is investigating the incident and the institute is cooperating fully in the investigation.”
Unnikrishnan Nair’s father Reghu is a senior scientist at ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram.
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