A 26-year-old student from Cooch Behar’s Mathabhanga, who had aspired to join a research programme at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, was found hanging at the rented accommodation of his friend here on Tuesday night.

Police said Ajoy Kundu had come to meet his friend, an IISER-K researcher, last week and had been staying with him for the past few days. The police seized the body of Ajoy after breaking down the door of a rented room at a multi-storied building located near the IISER-K campus, shortly after Kundu’s friend had found it locked from inside after returning in the evening.

The deceased youth, a resident of Siktibari area of Mathabhanga, was rushed to JNM Hospital where he was declared brought-dead.

Police sources said they had begun a case of unnatural death. They also found a suicide note, apparently written by the deceased. However, investigators refused to divulge its content.

They said the youth appeared to be “mentally disturbed because of problems at home”.

The body was handed over to family members on Wednesday afternoon after the post-mortem in Kalyani.

A student of IISER-K, who also lives at the same residential building and had known the youth, said: “Since the hostel is closed owing to Covid-19, most researchers have been staying at rented accommodations. I had seen the youth on a number of occasions staying with a fellow IISER students. We found him in a jovial mood and there was no indication of any depression in him.”

“It was quite shocking to find him hanging last night at our building,” the student added.

One of the family members of the deceased student, who came to receive the body from Kalyani morgue, said: “Ajoy was a very meritorious student. He was trying to join TIFR and was also preparing for the Joint Entrance Screening Test, an examination for joining PhD and integrated PhD programmes. He left home last week for an entrance test at TIFR in Calcutta and told us about meeting his friend at IISER. But we could never imagine that he had other plans on his mind.”

IISER-K’s dean of student affairs Balaram Mukhopadhyay said: “We have heard about the incident. However, we have nothing to do since it occurred outside the campus. But we spoke to our students and they were quite shocked. We have tried to provide all possible mental health help to the roommate so that he can overcome the shock.”