Assam Student Found Dead at Homestay: Boyfriend Held, Police Reject His Suicide Account

A 22-year-old sociology student at Gauhati University was found dead at a homestay on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam, early Saturday, September 26. Police arrested her boyfriend hours later after concluding his account of what happened doesn't add up.

The student, identified by police as Nimisha Thakuria, was staying at a homestay called Rudra's Kitchen in the Garal-Dharapur area near Azara, according to The Pratidwani. Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Bolin Deori, whose name is also rendered as Balin Deuri in some reports, told multiple outlets that three men brought Thakuria to a local health center unconscious in the early morning hours. She was referred to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.

The man arrested is identified across reports as Ashiq Ali, Asif Ali, or Ashik Ali, age 26. He told police Thakuria hanged herself from a ceiling fan, according to Deori's statements to NDTV and Hindustan Times. Police say they don't believe him.

"We don't believe his version. We need to continue our investigation," Deori told NDTV. "We haven't found blood on the body or the floor, and our investigation is on." Deori said the case is being treated as a suspected murder pending the post-mortem report, which had not been released as of this writing.

Conflicting Details Emerge

Accounts of the hours before Thakuria's death vary by source but share a rough outline. She left her family's home in Dharapur Friday evening, telling relatives she was visiting a friend's house for snacks, according to NDTV. Gautam Das, a family friend who spoke to NDTV outside the post-mortem hall at Gauhati Medical College, said Thakuria's father learned only afterward that his daughter had allegedly been murdered.

A more specific and more disturbing claim comes from the family: that Thakuria called her mother around 2 a.m. saying, in Das's account to NDTV, "they will kill me," before her phone went dead. NDTV reported this claim "remains to be investigated" and has not been independently verified. The Pratidwani similarly reported she called her mother alleging assault before her phone was switched off. These are family accounts relayed secondhand, not confirmed by police or phone records in any source reviewed.

A homestay staff member told Hindustan Times he heard Ali crying and trying to wake Thakuria after finding her unconscious. Madhyama Online, citing NDTV, reported the caretaker heard a male voice calling out during the night, and that staff later found Thakuria on the floor while Ali held her, prompting the owners to call an ambulance.

The Times of India added a detail not carried elsewhere: Deori said Thakuria and Ali had visited the same homestay five times over the past month and were allowed to stay without proper identity verification. The homestay's owner had rented the property to a man named Jayanta Saki for roughly Rs 1.3 lakh a month, and that owner is now being questioned by police alongside caretakers and other staff.

Protests and 'Love Jihad' Allegations

The death triggered protests in Dharapur on Saturday, with residents blocking a road and, according to The Pratidwani, briefly disrupting traffic on NH-17, a route leading to Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport. Demonstrators demanded a thorough investigation.

Because Thakuria was Hindu and Ali is Muslim, some organizations at the protest invoked "love jihad," a term used by Hindu nationalist groups to allege that Muslim men deliberately pursue relationships with Hindu women to convert them. NDTV's report characterized the concept as "a conspiracy theory promoted by right-wing Hindu groups." No source reviewed here presents evidence tying this specific case to any organized conversion effort. What the sources do document is a police investigation into a death with unexplained injury marks, a disputed suicide claim, and a homestay with a documented pattern of unverified overnight stays. Whether religion played any role in what happened inside that room is an assertion made by protesters and not a finding made by investigators.

The post-mortem report is the next concrete piece of evidence expected in the case, and it will determine whether injury marks found during the inquest are consistent with Ali's account of a suicide or point toward the murder investigators currently suspect. Deori has said the inquiry remains in its preliminary stage. Ali remains in police custody, and the homestay owner and staff continue to be questioned about the lack of guest verification that let the couple stay there repeatedly without documentation.