A third-year English honours student at The Heritage College was found hanging from the ceiling fan inside her room in the girls’ hostel along EM Bypass on Wednesday morning.
Police said the room was “loosely latched” from inside and could be opened when it was pushed a few times from outside.
No suicide note was found in the room, police said.
Shabana, 22, who was from Bokaro in Jharkhand, was alone in her room, the police said. Her roommate had left for her hometown on Tuesday.
“The deceased used to write only her first name. That is what we found in all her official documents from the college,” said an officer at the Anandapur police station.
Shabana did not come out for breakfast and was apparently not responding to phone calls from her friends in the hostel. That alerted the hostel warden, who went to look for her.
“When she (Shabana) did not open the door, the warden pushed the door a few times and it opened. Shabana was found hanging from the ceiling,” said the officer.
Hostel officials informed Anandapur police station. A team of cops reached the hostel, brought Shabana down and took her to hospital, where she was declared dead.
An official in The Heritage Group, of which the college is a part, told Metro that according to the warden and other students in the hostel, Shabana was “normal” till Tuesday night.
“She had dinner and chatted with other girls, like she used to on most days. She did not show signs of anything unusual till yesterday (Tuesday),” the official said.
The body has been sent for post-mortem. “Shabana’s mobile phone has been seized,” an officer at the police station said.
Her family, comprising her mother and two siblings, have been informed about her death.
The police said the family would reach Calcutta on Wednesday itself. “We have not received any complaint from the family till now,” an officer said on Wednesday evening.
A senior officer in the East division of Calcutta police said the cops spoke to some of her hostel-mates and friends in the college, but did not find any apparent reason
that could result in a possible trigger behind the incident.
An unnatural death case has been started at Anandapur police station.
None of the students the police have spoken to in connection with the case could recall any incident that could give rise to the suspicion that Shabana had been depressed, an officer said.
“There were no apparent injury marks on the body, except the ligature marks on her neck. We are waiting for the post-mortem report before coming to any conclusion on the cause of death,” the senior officer said.
The officer added that they would try to gather more details about Shabana from her family members once they reach the city.