The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has found a Bhubaneswar-based private deemed to be university of negligence in handling the case of sexual harassment of a Nepali student, thereby contributing in the abetment to suicide of the student.

The student of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), a deemed to be university, committed suicide on February 16 after being “harassed” by a male student of the institute.

The NHRC sent a team for inquiry to allegations of negligence by KIIT and violation of human rights of tribal students in Kalinga Institute Social Sciences (KISS), another deemed to be university of the same group.

The report, accessed by The Telegraph, said the deceased Nepali girl had made a complaint to KIIT’s International Relations Office (IRO) in which she “clearly mentioned that she has already extended a threat to the alleged accused Advik Shrivastava that she will commit suicide if he does not delete her nude photos”.

After receiving the complaint, the IRO referred to disciplinary committee officials which directed Advik Shrivastava to delete all nude photographs of the victim and disposed of the matter “in a very casual manner”.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013, wants organisations with at least 10 employees to set up an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to deal with cases of sexual harassment.

“The IRO office and disciplinary committee just get undertakings from the victim and the alleged accused rather than informing or referring to this complaint to the ICC or the local police station,” the report said.

“Therefore, the conduct of the IRO and university officers/disciplinary committee and college authorities (is) sufficient to show that there was gross negligence and omission on their part — IRO and university authorities — which may (be) treated (as) amount to (an) act of abetment to commit suicide on the part of the university officials, which finally resulted in her suicide,” the report concluded.

After the incident, students protested against the authorities. The institute officials misbehaved and abused the Nepali students and passed the derogatory remarks against Nepal, the report said. On February 17, the institute issued sine-die notice only against the Nepali students and forced them to vacate the campus without even giving time to make alternative arrangement of their stay. The institute took them in bases and dropped them unattended at different locations such as Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, and Khordha railway stations.

“It shows gross violations of human rights of Nepali students. Some witnesses have admitted that not only Nepali Students, but other students were also involved in protest, but sine-die notice was issued only for Nepali student which does not seem justified,” the report said.

The committee also enquired into lack of facilities at KISS. In 2017, the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had found overcrowding of students in hostels, unclean facilities and lack of basic amenities. The CWC had also recommended for the formation of a joint inquiry committee to investigate the issue. The NHRC committee found no joint inquiry has been held by Khurda district administration.

The NHRC report said KIIT violated the University Grants Commission’s directions on how to check harassment of students on campus. Yet, the UGC had not taken any action for this violation.

Despite such deficiencies and violations, KIIT has been accredited with A++ , the highest grade while KISS has been awarded with A grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The NHRC report also questioned transparency in assessment and accreditation by NAAC.