Nepalese student death case: Odisha government's committee records statement of more KIIT officials

Bhubaneswar: Around half a dozen senior KIIT officials on Thursday appeared before the Odisha government's high-level committee probing the death allegedly by suicide of a 20-year-old Nepalese B Tech student Prakriti Lamsal and the subsequent unrest on the campus.

The Higher Education department had summoned the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology's (KIIT) chief proctor P K Patnaik, director Sanhita Mishra, Internal Committee chief Ipsita Satpathy, assistant director Smarika Pati and others to appear before the high-level committee.

The three-member committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Satyabrata Sahu, heard the views of the KIIT officials and inquired about whether the deceased foreign student (Nepalese girl) had made any complaint of harassment before the private varsity’s International Relations Office (IRO) as alleged by other Nepalese students.

Earlier, on February 21, KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta and seven other top officials of the varsity had appeared before the panel and recorded their statements.

The state government on February 18 constituted a high-level committee which has been mandated to ascertain the circumstances leading to the alleged suicide, alleged high-handed action by the varsity authorities, reasons for issuing notice only to a specific group (Nepalese) of students and closing the institute sine die for them and any other incidental matter that emerges during the inquiry.