Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police has begun investigation into the death of a lady research scholar of the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), who allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself inside her room during a video call with her friend on Tuesday night.
The deceased has been identified Subhalaxmi Acharya (34).
The body was sent for post-mortem and handed over to the family members on Wednesday.
“We have registered an Unnatural Death (U/D) case and waiting for the post mortem report. We are investigating the case and trying to get more information from the colleagues of the deceased. We will also seek details from other persons on the basis of her mobile call records. After we complete our investigation, we would be able to say whether it is a case of suicide or homicide,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi told media persons today.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that the deceased, before committing suicide, was having a video call with Chirantan Samantray, an IIT student of Nagpur, who once did an internship at IMMT under her.
The incident came to light after Samantaray informed the Mancheswar police at about 11.30 PM about the suicide attempt of Acharya by hanging herself while she was on a video call with him.
Following information, police rushed to her rented house at Bhagwat Sandhan Phase-II near Rasulgarh and found her hanging from a ceiling fan.
Prior to her video call with Chirantan, the deceased had a heated exchange of words with a person over her phone, police said.
Police, in the meanwhile, has decided to summon Chirantan for interrogation to know about the details of the incident.
The deceased, who was married since past 11 years, was staying alone after separating from her husband over three years ago and working as a senior project fellow in IMMT since March 2013 after completing her M Tech.