The father and the elder brother of Suriya Deepan G.S., a student of IISER Thiruvananthapuram who died at IIT Kharagpur on Thursday, reached the IIT campus late on Thursday so they could be present during the post-mortem and take the body back to Tamil Nadu.
Upon arrival, they went to the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. “The morgue was not open around that time. So, we waited till morning. As we examined it, we realised no harm was done to the body. We believe he died because of natural reasons,” Rooban G.S., elder brother of Suriya Deepan, said on Friday afternoon. “We don’t suspect anyone. He had some health issues."
The body did not have any external injury marks, said an officer of West Midnapore police.
Suriya Deepan, 20, came to the IIT for his summer internship.
Dhritiman Sarkar, West Midnapore superintendent of police, said in a text message: “Post-mortem was conducted in the presence of the family members and the body was handed over to them.”
The police said the boy's father, Anand G.A., did not lodge any complaint. "His father told us that his son had a medical problem. He had told the doctor who conducted the post-mortem about the problem," said an officer.
The formal post-mortem report will be available after a few days, he said.
Suriya Deepan had been sharing a room at the RK Hall of Residence on the IIT campus with two other students, who, too, were doing internship.
An IIT official said Suriya Deepan spoke to his mother hours before the death. “He told his mother around 10.30pm that he had curd rice on Wednesday night in the canteen. He worked in our chemistry laboratory till 7.15pm. It seems something happened while he was asleep."
The family left for Calcutta airport with the body on Friday afternoon.
“The family told us that the boy was under medication since 2021 and doctors had explained to them that a heart-related problem could crop up silently. It seems what the doctors had warned of, happened,” the IIT official said.
An IISER official told this newspaper on Thursday that Suriya Deepan was pursuing MS in chemistry.
He was found lying on the floor unconscious around 1.15am on Thursday. The two roommates, who are from Madhya Pradesh and Bengal, tried to revive him but failed. He breathed his last on the way to the BC Roy hospital on the campus.