Family members of a 14-year-old student of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) on Saturday staged a protest outside the Keonjhar collector’s office, alleging foul play in the boy’s death while he was undergoing treatment at KIIMS, the hospital run by KIIT.
Though KISS authorities are yet to issue an official statement, sources said the boy, Siba Munda, a Class IX student, was suffering from dysentery and collapsed in the bathroom of his hostel on Thursday. He was rushed to KIIMS, where he died on Friday. Siba hailed from Tikarguma village in Keonjhar district.
However, his father Raghunath Munda, a labourer, alleged that his son was murdered. “Just two days ago, my son spoke to me over the phone and said he would come home at the end of this month. On Friday, I received a call from KISS saying he was unwell. I rushed to Bhubaneswar and was devastated to learn that he had died,” he told The Telegraph.
Raghunath Munda said Siba was the eldest of his three sons and had been studying at KISS for the past six years. “I want a thorough probe to establish the circumstances leading to his death. They say he fell in the bathroom due to weakness caused by dysentery,” he said.
“I suspect foul play as there were scar marks on my son’s body. The KISS authorities gave me ₹20,000 for cremation, but I am yet to receive the medical report. I do not know how my son died or what illness he had. He had no prior medical history,” the father alleged.
The family has demanded compensation of ₹1 crore, claiming there was an attempt to cover up the actual cause of death.
Keonjhar police said an FIR had been lodged and forwarded to the commissionerate police in Bhubaneswar, where the incident occurred. “The case has been transferred to Infocity police station, under whose jurisdiction the incident falls,” said Keonjhar Town police.
Police made elaborate security arrangements near the collectorate to maintain law and order.
KISS was established in 1993 as a residential tribal school and became a deemed-to-be university in 2017. It provides free residential education to around 80,000 students.
