Arun Marymesi, 23, a final-year Metallurgical and Materials Engineering student, died in IIT Ropar on March 22.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
About 200 km from Hyderabad, a family in Nandyal district, Andhra Pradesh, lost their only son, just three months before he was set to graduate with a B. Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar in Punjab.
Arun Marymesi, 23, a final-year Metallurgical and Materials Engineering student, passed away at a hospital (Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh on March 22, a week after consuming poison in his hostel room. In his final moments, he regretted his decision and expressed a desire to live. But it was too late.
On March 25, Arun’s body was flown from Chandigarh to Hyderabad in a cargo flight. From there, his family took a taxi to their home in Ramapuram village in Nandyal district.
A day after performing his final rites, Arun’s father, Marymesi Sudhakar, broke down during a telephonic conversation with The Hindu. His cousin, Shiva, said in a sombre tone, “We don’t want this to happen to anyone’s child… the government should address this. Arun was worried about his low GATE score and his four backlogs, but we never imagined he would take such a drastic step.”
Shiva said the family learned of the incident only on March 16 through Arun’s friend and immediately flew to Chandigarh.
Signs left unseen
“We don’t know what he went through alone, but he was at his best when he was with us,” recalled Prashanth, Arun’s closest friend and classmate. “Just two days earlier, Arun was out playing cricket, as if nothing was wrong.”
On Holi, while most of his friends had gone on weekend trips, he stayed back in the hostel. “I was in Delhi when I got a call. He asked me where I was. It felt like a casual conversation. I had no idea he had already consumed poison,” he said.
Since his best friend wasn’t there, he turned to others, confessing that he had consumed poison. They rushed him to the medical centre inside the institute, from where he was shifted to PGIMER. By then, regret had already set in. In the hospital, Arun realised what he had done. During his week-long treatment, his father, cousin, and later his sister — when his condition worsened — stayed by his side.
“He was my close friend in class. We shared a strong bond, but he never spoke about his struggles. He seemed completely normal,” Prashanth said.
Troubling questions
Arun had purchased Paraquat Dichloride, a pesticide, from a popular e-commerce platform just days before the incident, raising concerns about the easy accessibility of toxic substances online. More troublingly, this was not his first attempt. Students shared that about six months ago, he had tried to harm himself but was saved in time.
Days after the incident, social media, particularly Reddit, was flooded with students questioning the delay in communication. “We only found out on Monday, when an email about the condolence meeting was sent. Why was it kept under wraps for so long?” students asked. Many members of the faculty were equally unaware.
Meanwhile, a faculty member, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to a larger pattern of suicides among students from disadvantaged communities in IITs.
“Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds enter IITs with big aspirations but struggle to cope with the system. They under-perform, accumulate backlogs, and often feel isolated. The pressure only builds —failing courses means losing eligibility for campus placements. Arun was one of them,” the professor said.
While SC/ST support cells exist, their effectiveness remains in question. “The system lacks empathy-driven interventions,” he added.
(Roshni suicide prevention helplines: 8142020033 / 8142020044).
Published – March 27, 2025 08:54 PM is
