Police arrest ABVP leader, another who videorecorded Odisha college student setting herself afire

Bhubaneswar/Balasore: An Odisha ABVP functionary, and a student who shot the video of the 20-year-old woman setting herself on fire on a college premises in Balasore district, were arrested on Monday on charges of abetment of suicide, police said.

An officer said that one of the two arrested men knew the woman's plan.

The woman student set herself ablaze on July 12 and died two days later in a hospital here.

Those arrested were identified as Subhra Sambait Nayak, the state joint secretary of ABVP and Jyoti Prakash Biswal, a student of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, where the woman studied, they said.

Biswal was initially hailed for trying to save the woman, who set herself on fire on July 12 over alleged inaction on her sexual harassment complaint against a professor. He had also suffered burn injuries while trying to douse the blaze.

The two were arrested on Sunday night and booked under BNS section 108 (abetment of suicide) and 61(2) (a) (criminal conspiracy), police said.

Biswal was recently discharged from the SCB Medical College and Hospital after recovering from burn injuries. The state government had praised him for his "heroic" attempt to save the woman.

"Initially, it was believed that Biswal attempted to save the burning woman. But, during the investigation, it came to the fore that he was aware of the woman's plan and filmed the self-immolation attempt on his mobile phone. In the process, he sustained burn injuries," the officer said.

Biswal and Nayak were produced before a court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The woman, who suferred 95 per cent burn injuries, had died on July 14 while undergoing treatment at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar.

She allegedly poured petrol and set herself on fire, claiming that the college authorities were not taking any action against the head of the department (HoD) of the integrated B Ed course, who allegedly sought sexual favours from her.

The HoD, Samira Kumar Sahoo, and the college's principal, Dillip Ghose, were earlier arrested on abetment of suicide charges. With the fresh arrests, the number of persons in custody rose to four.

Following the arrests, the opposition BJD and Congress alleged that the woman student was instigated by ABVP members to take the extreme step.

"This is evident from the arrest of Subhra Sambait Nayak, who is the state joint secretary of ABVP," BJD MLA Goutam Buddha Das told a press conference.

He alleged that the woman student fell prey to a big conspiracy hatched by ruling BJP with assistance of ABVP leaders.

“We demand that Balasore’s BJP MP Pratap Sarangi, whom the woman student had sought help before killing self, should come under the purview of investigation,” Das told reporters.

Sarangi responded immediately and asked Das or the BJD to file an FIR against him if he is responsible.

The students and youth activists of Congress also demanded action against the BJP and ABVP leaders involved in the self immolation case.

Meanwhile, the ABVP in a statement condemned the arrest of two student leaders.

The organisation's state secretary Diptimayi Pratihari said, "ABVP is ready to extend full cooperation to the police in this matter, but the Vidyarthi Parishad will not remain silent if its workers are harassed and attempts to implicate innocents continue. Attempts by the Odisha Police to torture ABVP workers mentally and physically will be strongly opposed”.

She said that the ABVP makes it clear that it will continue to fight for justice for the victim, but if the police adopt a biased attitude, the Parishad will not tolerate it under any circumstances.

“It is very unfortunate to take action against those who come forward to save the victim. If the accomplices are made criminals in such cases, then anyone will hesitate to come forward to help the victim,” the ABVP leader said.