Gonikoppal: A 19-year-old student, who distributed birthday sweets to her friends, later committed suicide by hanging self at her hostel room at Halligattu village in Ponnampet taluk on Wednesday. The girl had celebrated her birthday three days ago and had distributed sweets to those who had not attended her birthday celebration.

The deceased student is Tejaswini, a native of Lingasur in Raichur district, who was pursuing her first year Engineering course at Coorg Institute of Technology (CIT) at Halligattu and was staying in college hostel.

It is learnt, Tejaswini celebrated her birthday with her friends on Monday and on Wednesday she distributed sweets to others.

According to Police, Tejaswini returned to her hostel room at about 4 pm and her classmates went to her room only to find it locked from inside and began to knock on the door. When she did not respond, they informed hostel authorities who forcibly opened the door and found Tejaswini hanging. The reason for her to take the extreme step is yet to be known.

Ponnampet Police, who visited the spot, conducted mahazar and registered a case.