Kharagpur, March 25: Former Supreme Court judge Umesh Chandra Banerjee will probe Rohit Kumar’s death and the fierce student protests that followed on the IIT Kharagpur campus.

The institute’s board of governors appointed Justice Banerjee at a meeting today. “He will start working in a day or two and submit a report within a month of the day he starts working,” said stand-in director Madhusudan Chakraborty.

Students had alleged that the third-year electrical engineering student died because of medical negligence in the hospital on the campus. Over 5,000 students had joined the protests on Sunday and forced the director to resign.

IIT sources said the one-man panel would look into the events leading to Rohit’s death and fix responsibility. It will also look into the subsequent violence and whether it could have been prevented.

A report the IIT has submitted to the Union government says Rohit died because of delays in providing medical assistance and not the institute’s negligence.