UGC team in Odisha, probing into self-immolation death of college student

Bhubaneswar/ Balasore: Three days after the death of the 20-year-old woman college student, multiple agencies, including a fact-finding team of UGC, on Friday reached Balasore to probe into the circumstances that forced the student to set herself on fire over alleged inaction on her sexual harassment complaint against a teacher.

A four-member UGC fact-finding team under the chairmanship of Professor Raj Kumar Mittal, reached here to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident and conduct a probe into the harassment of students in Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore. The other members of the panel were: Prof. Sushma Yadav, Dr Neerja Gupta and UGC Joint Secretary Asima Mangala.

"This is a very sensitive case. We need to understand everything and do the job objectively," Mittal told reporters as his team reached FM College campus here.

The team met the college principal in charge Firoz Kumar Padhi. They will also meet different stakeholders, including members of the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) and students of the integrated Bed department, an official said.

Padhi said three agencies have reached the college on Friday and all are doing their probe independently without hampering the studies in the college. The woman student set herself ablaze on the college campus on July 12. She died at AIIMS Bhubaneswar on July 14 night.

Meanwhile, the Odisha Higher Education department's three-member high-level committee headed by Kaliprasanna Mohapatra, also reached the FM College in Balasore and met the members of the ICC committee, including three student members. The ICC members were the focus of investigation after the deceased woman student's father squarely blamed them for his daughter's death.

"Had the ICC given a proper report, my daughter would have been alive today," her father had said after the woman succumbed to 95 per cent burn injury on Monday night. However, Dr Jayashree Mishra, Assistant Professor of Psychology and head of the ICC, had claimed that in their report on July 9 they had suggested the removal of the accused HoD of the integrated BEd department, Samira Kumar Sahoo, from his post.

The woman student set herself ablaze on July 12, three days after the ICC recommended the removal of HoD from his post, another member of the panel said, adding that the Odisha Police Crime Branch had grilled the members of the ICC on Thursday.

The then principal had asked the ICC to probe into allegations made by the woman student on June 30. The ICC started its investigation on July 3 and submitted its report saying that the accused HoD was found harassing students in other forms due to his strict actions, like asking students to stand for more than 30 minutes for small mistakes, but there was "no evidence" of sexual harassment as alleged by the woman student.

The deceased woman student was debarred from appearing for the semester examination on June 29 by the HoD on the ground of insufficient attendance. Though there was a notification issued by the HoD stating that nine students would be debarred from the semester examination, including the deceased woman student, however, the eight others could finally write the examination. Denial of appearing for the examination could have hurt her a lot, a member of the ICC said.

Meanwhile, the Odisha Police Crime Branch team which has started its probe into the case since Thursday, visited the deceased woman student's native village in Bhogarai area in Balasore district. CB IG, S Shyni and DSP Iman Kalyan Nayak went to the house of the student and met her parents and brother. "The CB has taken up the case for investigation. We will handle the case with utmost fairness and professionalism. At this stage, we prefer not to disclose further details of the investigation," Inspector General (IG) Shyni told reporters at Balasore.

As the deceased student’s family alleged that she poured petrol on her body before setting herself afire, the CB's investigating team visited a petrol outlet near the FM College in Balasore and collected CCTV footage from the filling station. "The crime branch has taken CCTV footage of three days from July 11 to July 13 on a pen drive," the petrol pump owner said.

The CCTV footage could help the investigating agency to know whether the victim herself collected petrol or someone took it for her.

The CB team had on Thursday visited SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack and recorded the statement of Jyotiprakash Biswal, a key eyewitness currently undergoing treatment at the hospital. Jyotiprakash suffered 15 per cent burn injuries while attempting to save the woman student.

In a related development, the victim woman student's close friend told mediapersons that the accused HoD had mobilised the support of nearly 300 students to defend himself in the sexual harassment case. Only 15-20 students stood by the victim. "She was feeling isolated in the fight against the HoD as her department batchmates supported the accused and not her," one of her friends said.

The victim's roommate, Srabani Das, also a student of the FM College, told television channels that she had no plans to commit self-immolation.