Akshith Bhukya, a second-year student in the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) at IIM-Ahmedabad, was found dead in his hostel room, having taken his own life by hanging. Police suspect that stress from organizing The Red Brick Summit, a high-profile management event, may have played a role. The incident occurred on Thursday morning at the institute’s new campus in Vastrapur, with Bhukya’s body discovered around 10:45 AM.
Following the tragedy, IIM-A cancelled The Red Brick Summit, which Bhukya was leading as the primary coordinator. The event was set to commence on September 27. According to DCP Himanshu Kumar Verma, “Prima facie, we do not suspect any foul play in the incident. The investigation so far indicates that Bhukya was possibly under stress due to the TRBS that was scheduled to begin on Friday. This is just the preliminary detail, and we are further investigating if he suffered from depression or if there was any other issue at play."
Inspector V D Mori of the Vastrapur police reported that Bhukya had spoken to a friend around 10:00 AM on Thursday, and returned to his room shortly after. When his friends tried calling him and received no response, they went to check on him. After knocking and failing to get an answer, they entered his room through a window and found him hanging. “His friends told us that he was the lead coordinator for the summit and was under stress," Mori added, noting that the specific cause of the stress is still under investigation. The police have registered the case as an accidental death, and Bhukya’s body was sent to Sola Civil Hospital for postmortem.
Bhukya, originally from Warangal in Telangana, was 24 years old. His LinkedIn profile shows that he was a BTech graduate in computer science from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal. He had worked as a software developer in Hyderabad before joining IIM-A in 2023, and had completed an internship earlier this year at S&P Global. His family was informed of the tragedy and were expected to arrive in Ahmedabad on Thursday night.
