In a shocking incident, a Professor of the NIT Rourkela and his wife were found dead on Saturday morning in their quarters in the NIT premises.
The deceased were R Jayabalan (37) and his wife Malini Kesavan (35) of Tamil Nadu. They had tied the knot nine years ago. Jayabalan was an Assistant Professor in the Life Sciences Department in the NIT while his wife was working at the CWS hospital at Jagda here.
On Saturday, some staff members residing near the official quarter of Jayabalan informed the NIT security that the lights inside quarter of Jayabalan were on, but the Jayabalan couple had not come out of their house for last two days. The neighbourers and colleagues also informed that the quarter of Jayabalan was locked from inside.
The NIT security officer told a security personnel of NIT to go inside the quarter through a window. The security personnel, after entering the room, found Jayabalan lying dead in a toilet in a naked condition and his wife lying dead in bed with only a kameez on her top and without a salwar.
The NIT security officer informed the Sector-3 police station about the death of the couple. Police reached the spot and recovered the bodies. Police also recovered a four-page suicide note in English and Tamil. The couple was childless.
The police conducted inquest of deceased couple and kept their bodies in morgue of the IGH.
The family members of couple are to reach Rourkela on Sunday and the postmortem of the bodies would be conducted in the presence of the family members.
It was suspected that the couple consumed poison. “Prima facie, it looks like a suicide case.
There is no clear indication of the reason behind their extreme step. They were childless and have asked for forgiveness from their parents in the suicide note. We are further investigating," said Rourkela SP Sarthak Sarangi.