SURAT: A 29-year-old postgraduate medical student died by suicide at the Govt Medical College (GMC) campus in Surat on Sunday. The deceased, Dr Harsh Pandya, a first-year MD microbiology student, was found hanging in his room at the PG hostel.Following the incident, health minister Praful Panseriya ordered an internal inquiry under the supervision of the additional director of medical education and research Dr Jayesh Sachde. The committee will function under New Civil Hospital superintendent Dr Parul Vadgama, GMC Surat dean Dr Jayesh Brahmbhatt and other senior doctors.Pandya was a native of Aravalli district. His father, Subhas Pandya, who is also a doctor, told media persons that his son had mentioned harassment by some seniors in the past. “When I used to talk to Harsh, mentioned about harassment by seniors. Let us hope the postmortem report and committee report comes to some conclusion,” he added.Minister Panseriya said, “I have talked to the father of the student and assured him justice. Statements of all students present will be recorded on Sunday night and the report of the inquiry will be submitted within 24 hours. The investigation will determine whether the doctor faced any ragging or harassment by a senior doctor or professor.”Khatodara police inspector N V Bharwad told TOI, “We received a call about Pandya’s suicide around 9 am on Sunday. Our team checked his room 1005 but did not find any suicide note. We are investigating what might have led to this extreme step. We will also record statements of his friends and family members.” He added that a case of accidental death was registered at Khatodara police station.Pandya had joined GMC in Feb after securing admission to the microbiology department. As a first-year student, he was assigned emergency duty at New Civil Hospital. On Sunday morning, he was scheduled to be on duty.When Pandya failed to report for duty, his colleague Dr Ankur and others tried calling him, but he did not respond. They went to his hostel room and alerted the security as there was no response after knocking on the door. On breaking open the door, they found Pandya hanging from the ceiling fan.A panel of doctors conducted a forensic post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of death.
