Two women were found hanging in their respective campus accommodations at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on July 13, 2016. Police suspect that 47-year old Vijaya Lakshmi, wife of a professor from the Physics department at IIT-M, and 34-year-old post-doctoral scholar P Maheshwari, committed suicide because of depression.
A senior official from the J4 Kotturpuram police station, Chennai, said, “Vijaya Lakshmi was depressed for quite some time because of few family problems which led her to take this step.”
P Maheshwari’s friends informed the institute authorities on the situation when she failed to open her room door. An official from the IIT-M said, “We called the police as soon as Maheshwari’s hostel warden informed us about the incident.”
Both the women were immediately taken to the institute hospital. The police is still investigating the reason behind Maheshwari’s extreme step. A senior police official said, “We are investigating this matter but we suspect there were family issues, and she was also fighting depression.”