KIIT student suicide case: NHRC team holds meeting with Odisha Police, continues probe

Bhubaneswar: An NHRC team, which is probing into the death of a 20-year-old Nepalese girl student at the KIIT University here, has met senior police officers of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack commissionerate, officials said.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team began its inquiry into the incident on Thursday, and would continue the exercise on Friday, they said.

During the day, they could meet senior KIIT officials and its founder Achyuta Samanta, the officials said.

“We have met the NHRC team at the state guest house and gave all pertinent information to them. A liaison officer has been specifically assigned to support and facilitate the ongoing investigation by the rights panel,” Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh told reporters here.

He along with Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena met the rights panel representatives on Thursday night.

They have offered all cooperation to the NHRC team members and apprised them of the situation, under which the girl allegedly died by suicide, another official said.

The NHRC team members were also informed about violence on the campus after the death of Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year Computer Science student at KIIT, he said The NHRC inquiry team, led by its Registrar (Law) Joginder Singh, spent nearly five hours at the KIIT University campus where Lamsal's body was recovered on February 16 evening.

The team members interacted with the deceased girl’s friends, her hostel inmates and some officials of the KIIT, who allegedly misbehaved with the Nepalese students.

As directed by the rights panel, the team would also look into alleged attacks on Nepalese students by the staff of the private institute.

The commission has asked the team to submit its findings by March 10.

Acting upon a complaint and a letter from Nepal’s rights panel, the NHRC had formed a team of officers from the investigation and law divisions to conduct an on-spot inquiry into the student's death at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.

The petitioner to the NHRC had alleged that Lamsal had faced harassment by an engineering student at the institute, following which she died by suicide.

Though the victim had lodged a complaint of harassment issue before the KIIT’s International Relations Office (IRO), no action was taken against the accused, following which she ended her life, the petitioner claimed.

The local police have arrested one engineering student on the charge of abetment to suicide and he is now under judicial custody since February 17.

The complainant had also alleged that the Nepalese students, who sought justice and protested after the death of the girl student, were verbally abused, threatened and assaulted by KIIT officials and security guards.

They were allegedly served eviction notices, driven out of their hostel rooms and dropped at a railway station.

The police have so far arrested 10 officials of KIIT on the charge of assaulting the Nepalese students and five of them are still in jail.

The state government has also constituted a three-member committee headed by the additional chief secretary (home) to look into the matter.