IIT ISM academic drowns in institution''s pool

An assistant professor of IIT Indian School of Mines ISM here drowned in a swimming pool of the institution on Tuesday, an official said.Yashwanth Kumar Gujjala 35 from the department of mining engineering drowned in the pool at about 6.15 am, the official said.An eyewitness said he jumped into the pool but when he was not seen in the surface his colleagues dived in and fished him out.

An assistant professor of IIT Indian School of Mines (ISM) here drowned in a swimming pool of the institution on Tuesday, an official said.

Yashwanth Kumar Gujjala (35) from the department of mining engineering drowned in the pool at about 6.15 am, the official said.

An eyewitness said he jumped into the pool but when he was not seen in the surface his colleagues dived in and fished him out. He was rushed to the IIT ISM health center, where doctors referred him to the Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital, where declared him brought dead. The official said prima facie death appears due to drowning but the exact cause will be determined in the postmortem.

Gujjala joined IIT ISM in January this year.

The institute canceled all official programmes, including that of Union Minister Annapurna Devi, after the tragedy.

Gujjala was a resident of Howrah in West Bengal. He completed his BTech from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur in 2009 and M Tech in 2014. He completed his PhD from IIT Kharagpur in 2021.