A 26-year-old second-year nursing student at SSKM Hospital was found hanging inside a washroom on the first floor of a hostel in the hospital compound on Thursday morning.
Police identified the victim as Sutapa Karmakar, from Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur. No suicide note has been found, the police said.
“We received information that someone inside a washroom on the first floor of Lytton Hostel had been locked and was not responding for quite some time. A team of officers from Bhowanipore police station went there and had to break open the door in the presence of other students and staff of the hostel,” said an officer in the Kolkata police headquarters at Lalbazar.
The police said the woman was found hanging inside the washroom. She was taken to the Emergency ward of the hospital, where she was declared dead.
A senior officer at Lalbazar said they had not received any complaint from the family till Thursday evening.
“A preliminary inquiry suggested that she had committed suicide because of some personal reasons. We have not found any evidence of foul play behind the incident. This appears to be a case of suicide,” the officer said.
A case of unnatural death has been started at Bhowanipore police station.
An official at SSKM Hospital said the woman was a second-year student of general nursing and midwifery.
A police officer said the victim’s mobile phone would be subject to forensic examinations. Her call records are being scanned to know whom she had contacted before her death.
“A medical board has been set up to monitor the post-mortem,” said an officer.
The police have spoken to one of the victim’s friends to know more details about her life.
An officer said a preliminary inquiry has revealed that the woman had spoken with a friend for “long hours” on Wednesday night. “We will talk to the person for more details about their conversation and the victim’s state of mind,” said an officer.