While the NIT Silchar campus in Assam continues to be in turmoil over the death of third-year student Koj Buker, who was found hanging in his hostel room on Friday afternoon, members of his family said they were waiting for answers from the investigation and post-mortem.
The family, which took the body back to their home in Arunachal Pradesh’s Ziro, said on Monday that Buker was quiet and introverted, and that he had not communicated with them about any difficulties that he may have been going through on campus. They said they would wait for further information from the investigation before deciding on their next course of action.
At the institute, a large section of the student body has expressed the view that Buker was in distress because he had not been allowed to register for the fifth semester due to a backlog of papers from the first semester.
A part of the batch that joined the institute in 2021, much of Buker’s first year as an electrical engineering student was conducted in online mode, including the first semester examination.
His uncle, Ate Halley, said the family was taken aback when he did not clear multiple papers.
“We were surprised about how this could happen because he was a bright boy and he had managed to crack the exam to get into NIT. He didn’t explain much about what had gone wrong and said that he would manage to clear the papers later. We also thought that backlogs happen in engineering courses, since it’s not that easy,” Halley said.
He said Buker had lived in hostels for years – first at a Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya in Arunachal Pradesh and then at a school in Guwahati while he took coaching for JEE in the city.
“He qualified for NIT and opted for electrical engineering by choice. But we are not clear about what the circumstances leading to his death were since he didn’t share much and he was away in hostel,” the uncle said.
Following Buker’s death, NIT Silchar constituted a fact finding committee to inquire into the incident, while a section of students began an indefinite hunger strike demanding the resignation of Dean (Academics) B K Roy, holding him responsible for the suspected death by suicide.
On Friday, after Buker’s body was discovered, a large number of students stormed Roy’s quarters and vandalised it, while he and his family locked themselves in a bedroom. Police then entered the campus and resorted to lathi-charge to control the situation. Cachar SP Numal Mahatta said that two FIRs have been registered against students for vandalism.
Since then, the dean and his family have not returned to campus.
A hostel mate of Buker’s said the pressure of his backlog of papers had been taking a toll on him.
“After we came to the campus, through the third semester, I saw him trying to study. But he seemed to be feeling overwhelmed since he also had his backlog papers,” the student, who did not want to be identified, said.
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“By the end of his fourth semester, it seemed to be clear to me that he had begun to be very afraid of exams. We spoke about whether he should continue, and he said that he had decided to complete the degree even if it takes him more than the normal time. But recently, he was not being allowed to register for the fifth semester examinations,” the student added.
A senior member of the institute’s administration said that according to the regulations, for a student to register for the fifth semester examinations, they are required to have cleared all their first-year papers.
“There had been relaxations for the past two years because of the Covid situation, but now the institute has begun phasing back to normalcy. In that particular batch, there were 20 students with backlogs from the first year. However, the administration took a call to give relaxations for students who had just one or two backlog papers. In this way, relaxation was given to 18 students. There were two students who had a backlog for nearly all papers. However, the student never approached the administration seeking extra assistance for his situation,” said the official.
