Kanpur, November 30 An engineering student of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K), Swapnil Chandrakant Dharaskar, 21, was found dead near the academic building this morning.

The cause of the death is yet to be ascertained. Police said the post-mortem report pointed to the possibility of a suicide. But Swapnil’s father, Chandrakant Dharaskar, who spoke to him less than half-an-hour before his death, said his son was absolutely alright and was not suffering from any tension whatsoever.

Swapnil, a Second Year Mechanical Engineering student, hailed from Nagpur. He was to appear for the Chemistry paper as part of the third semester exams today.

According to reports, Swapnil spoke to his father in Nagpur at around 6:45 am today. At about 7:15 am, his body was spotted by a sweeper near the staircase of the academic building.

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Nagpur, Swapnil’s father confirmed that he had talked to his son last night as well as well as this morning. He added that Swapnil had sounded fine, and had not expressed any worries about anything.

‘‘Swapnil’s mother and elder sister are inconsolable. They haven’t spoken a word since we got the news,’’ he said, adding that he would be reaching Kanpur tomorrow afternoon.

The Dean of Student Affairs, Prawal Sinha, described Swapnil as an above average student. He had secured 7.62 and 7.79 percentile in the first and second semester exams respectively. Adding another angle, Sinha said Swapnil could have suffered a massive heart attack and fallen down.

On why the body was found near the academic building instead of the hostel, Sinha said Swapnil could have visited the library for last minute preparations. ‘‘If there are some unusual findings, we will propose a proper inquiry,’’ added Sinha.

However, the on-the-spot evidence does not support his theory. According to Superintendent of Police (Rural) Ratan Srivastava, the post-mortem report revealed that all his ribs were broken, his left foot was fractured, four teeth were broken and there werew internal injuries too. His spectacles, wrist watch and slippers were found scattered around the staircase of the academic building. Blood and other samples have been sent for tests to confirm the exact cause of death.

Swapnil’s roommate, Krishna Kumar Khandelwal, is still in a state of shock. He recalled that they had studied together for the Chemistry paper till around 2 am, after which he had slept off. ‘‘Swapnil was not in the room when I woke up at around 7 am,’’ he said.

According to him, Swapnil was a good student with a cheerful disposition. Denying any differences with him, he added that Swapnil had no enmity with anyone.