The mystery over the sudden death of 21-year-old BITS Pilani Goa student Kushagra Jain has deepened, with his father alleging foul play after forensic tests revealed the presence of a prescribed medication in his son’s body. His father, Vinod Kumar Jain, claimed his son suffered from no medical ailment, raising a critical question — how did he obtain the drug that allegedly caused his death?
A native of Lucknow and a topper with a CGPA of around 9, Kushagra was found dead in his hostel room on August 17. Initial post-mortem reports had kept the cause of death “reserved,” with viscera sent for further examination. While suicide was ruled out, later tests indicated a positive result for Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) medication, commonly prescribed to patients with hypertension or diabetes.
“My son never suffered from any disease and that is why, I asked the police and the director of the campus to provide me the CCTV footage to check who was with him last in his room because I suspect my son was murdered,” said an emotional Jain over the phone.
Jain believes his son was a victim of foul play. “Somebody in the campus could have been jealous of him. When I reached my son’s hostel room at around 6 pm in the evening, I found my son lying on the bed, his lips and nails were dark blue.”
“In a written statement to the police I have expressed suspicion over my son’s death and requested a thorough investigation to know the actual cause of death,” he added.
The autopsy report noted: Analyte: ACE; Concentration: 25.58; Cutoff: 15.00; Units: ug/ml; Result: POSITIVE.
“The medication found in the sample is a prescribed drug. It can be bought or sold over the counter only with a doctor’s prescription. The person who was the agent or the tout responsible for causing the alleged homicidal poisoning must have known the side effects of the lethal dose of the medication which would result in the death of the 21-year-old boy,” explained Dr Silvano Sapeco, former Head of Forensic Medicine at Goa Medical College.
He added that the father’s suspicion could not be dismissed. “Had he had a medical history, I would have stuck with my theory I shared yesterday. Now that he does not have, the main question is: how did he get the medication without prescription? In these times when competition is so tough, one cannot rule out foul play. It could have been one person or two or more involved.
The CCTV footage at the institute will help the police and also the examination of the samples in the bottles found in the boy’s room.”
Kushagra’s father, who insists his son was neither under academic pressure nor engaged in bad habits, has written to the institute’s director demanding CCTV footage from August 15–16, details of his son’s mobile chats, and call data records of his friends.
“My son was a topper throughout and therefore the question of academic pressure does not arise. He was not having any bad habits and being a Jain, he was a strict vegetarian. I strongly suspect that someone has made him consume some poisonous substance by any means,” the father stated.
Students at the campus, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed disbelief. They described Kushagra as a helpful and cheerful student. “Kush was a jovial guy who liked to play, discuss academic work and even shared his notes if asked. I do not do drugs and found it hard to believe that his death was being linked to drugs. But his death is turning out to be a big mystery for us,” said a classmate.
Meanwhile, Verna Police Inspector Anand Shirodkar expressed disappointment over criticism directed at the police. “Whenever such things happen, the police are the first to be blamed. We are an easy target,” he said when asked about not providing CCTV footage to the victim’s father.
“He (the victim’s father) wants me to send him eight hours of CCTV footage. How can I do it? It is easy for him to make such allegations sitting in his home. If he wants it, he should come here and I will show it,” assured Shirodkar.
While he maintained that his experience so far makes him “rule out foul play at this stage,” the officer confirmed that the police are awaiting the final report from the forensic laboratory at Verna.