Pressure of pursuing higher technical education at IIT Madras, the premier technology institution of the country, continues to tell on students, with some of them driven to the extreme step of taking their lives as two young scholars committed suicide in the Madras IIT campus on Wednesday.

Investigations so far have pointed to the fact that both the ladies who took their lives on Wednesday in two separate incidents, were suffering from depression. Exact reasons for this drastic step by them is still under investigation.

On Wednesday, research scholar P Maheshwari, 34, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room in Sabarmathi Hostel of the campus. Hailing from Puducherry, she was researching in Chemistry and she had a six year old child.

No suicide note has been found, Kotturpuram police station sources said. It is under the jurisdiction of this police station in South Chennai that IIT Madras campus falls. Her body has been sent for post mortem to the government hospital at Royapetah.

In yet another case, Vijayalaksmi, the wife of a senior professor Ganesan took her life by hanging herself from the ceiling fan inside her room. The couple have two daughters. The younger daughter is said to be mentally challenged and apparently she was extremely depressed over the future of her younger daughter. Police sources said that the couple also used to have some arguments over the plight of their second daughter.

In both the cases, the IIT Madras management has promised full cooperation to the police in investigating the matter.

On the suicide of the research scholar, Maheshwari, the IIT Madas said in a statement, “IIT Madras reports with deep sadness the death of a post-doctoral research scholar in the campus. The scholar’s family has been informed. The management has also assured full cooperation to police in investigating both the cases of suicide.

Two suicides in a month last year of students and two suicides this month has brought the issue into sharp focus once again.