‘We’ve lost everything’: Father after death of only son at IIM Bangalore

“We have lost everything in the world that we saved for. We dreamt of a good education for him and then his marriage and later, to play with our grandchildren. All our dreams have vanished,” the father is at a loss of words. Nilay was a second-year Post Graduate student. The Bengaluru Mico Layout police has registered a case of accidental death and a probe has been initiated.

“When I reached his hostel room on the second floor, his books were lying on the bed and open, which shows that he might have been studying before the incident,” Patel told The Indian Express on Tuesday. “His clothes were neatly hung behind the door. Everything was organised. We suspect Nilay might have got tired studying and might have gone to the balcony for some fresh air. He might have fallen down. He was staying alone in the hostel room with an attached balcony. The height of the balcony railing was around 2.5 feet and Nilay was over six feet tall”.

The proud father recalls that at a recent competition among 500 students across IIMs, Nilay had emerged only second to a Kolkata student. Nilay, he says, “was preparing for some campus placement the next day (Monday) and he was keen to be selected”.

“He was also selected for internship on the very first day by a multinational company at the college campus and worked for two months. In his fifth semester, he was selected for a student exchange programme at Normandie Business School in France. Currently, he was in the last semester with two months remaining and he was to participate in the placement in the college campus,” says Patel, who works as an executive engineer at Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (DGVCL) — the government owned power discom, and is posted in Surat. His wife is a school teacher.

“There was no stress or tension in his life. We are proud of him and we loved him a lot and always supported his decisions. It was his dream to study in IIM and we agreed and he got admission. For the past two years, he was studying well and was among the toppers at the institution. Even his college mates appreciated his hard work and intellect,” the distraught father says. The family belongs to the Dodiya Patel tribe of South Gujarat.

Nilay had completed his B.Tech in computer engineering from Surat’s Sardar Patel National Institute of Technology in 2019 with an overall CGPA of 8. He also worked in a private firm for a couple of years before he got admission in IIMB.

Nilay’s father, mother Deepti and her brother Snehal Patel arrived at the IIM campus Sunday and met the college authorities and his classmates. “January 5 was Nilay’s birthday. So three of his classmates asked him to go to a room in another building at night for some work. Nilay was surprised to see a cake with candles placed on the table in the room. One of the classmates had taken a video of the entire party. Around 12:30 am, he returned to his room. The incident (Nilay’s death) took place between 1 am to 6:30 am on Sunday,” Patel says.

The security guard discovered the body around 6.30 am and intimated the college authorities.

According to the father, the post-mortem revealed multiple internal injuries, including damage to his ribs and kidneys, that could be the cause of his death. The father says they also requested the college authorities for CCTV footage of the area outside the hostel rooms, but found that the authorities had not installed cameras there. “The college authorities should carry out a safety audit of the hostel rooms from an independent firm, and also increase the protection wall height in the balcony, so no such incident takes place again,” Patel adds.

The parents and uncle landed in Ahmedabad Tuesday with Nilay’s body, which was then taken to Palgabhan village. His final rites were performed at neighbouring Anaval village.