Who is Nikhil Somwanshi? Krutrim employee who died of suicide, colleague accused of “extreme work pressure”
A colleague who allegedly committed suicide by tech employee Nikhil Somwanshi after he entered the social media platform Reddit claimed the deceased was under “extreme work pressure.” On May 8, he was found dead.
According to a Reddit post by a user who claimed to be a colleague of Nikhil Somwanshi and identified as Kirigawakazuto, suicide was due to “extreme work pressure”.
Users accused Somwanshi of working with two other people who left the company, causing all the work to be pushed forward. He claimed that it was “traumatic” with the manager, especially for freshmen.
Who is Nikhil Somwanshi?
Nikhil Somwanshi is a machine learning engineer at Krutrim, an artificial intelligence (AI) unit led by Bhavish Aggrawal.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a fresh one and has been working at the company for 10 months since August 2024. This further suggests that he graduated from the Indian Academy of Sciences (IISC) in Bangalore in July 2024.
In terms of previous work experience, the profile shows that he interned for three months at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Bangalore in 2023; then worked as a natural Langach machining engineer at IISC for six months (from January to June 2024).
IISC internship demonstrates Nikhil Somwanshi’s experience working on Large Language Models (LLM) (part of his master’s paper) and Chatbot Saathi based on Retrieval-based Generation (RAG). It added that Saathi was funded by the Melinda Gates Foundation.
The chatbot also participated in the collaboration between IISC BANGALORE and Oxford Brooks University, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Akaike Technologies across 200 government programs.
What does the company say?
A spokesman told PTI that Krutrim “expanded full support for the families of the deceased” and “keep in touch with authorities to help as needed”.
“We are very saddened by the tragic experience of our most talented young employee, Somwanshi, on May 8. We have been sympathetic to his family, friends and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” the spokesperson said.
According to a spokesman, Nikhil Somwanshi “was on private leave when the incident occurred.”
They added: “He contacted his manager on April 8 and said he needed a break and quickly received a personal leave. Later on April 17 he shared that he felt better but would benefit from the extra rest and his leave was extended accordingly. We were heartbroken by this loss. Nikhil is a valuable team member and his absence will deeply know and work with him.”
