Bhubaneswar, May 27: The state government today asked the crime branch to inquire into the death of a 22-year-old girl student of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in November last year.

The body of Kumari Suchita, a second-year postgraduate student of the varsity's agronomy department, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her hostel room on November 18.

While the commissionerate police have registered a case of unnatural death in this connection, family members of the girl have alleged foul play.

"She was a brave girl and she could not have committed suicide. She was upset after returning to the city from Bangkok, where she had been to attend a seminar. I suspect that something might have happened during the trip because of which she was disturbed," said her father, Harendra Kumar.

A crime branch team today visited the university and spoke to faculty members, students and employees of the hostel, where Suchita used to stay. The team conducted its investigation for over three hours.

Suchita, a native of Muzzafarpur in Bihar, had been to Bangkok to attend a seminar in October last year. Four faculty members and another student had accompanied her on the trip. They returned from the tour on November 3.

Her father suspected knowledge of some illegal happening had led to her death.

Earlier the university authorities had constituted a five-member committee in November last year to conduct an internal inquiry into the matter.

The committee in its report, which was submitted in December, stated that Suchita had committed suicide due to problems related to her family.

In another development, the police have nabbed the autorickshaw driver who used to pick and drop social worker Nalini Prabha Das from her residence in Forest Park area.

The body of the 62-year-old woman was recovered from her home on Saturday.

"We are interrogating the autorickshaw operator to find out if he was involved in the incident," said a senior police official.

The autorickshaw operator had dropped her home for the last time on May 15. Ever since the woman's death, the auto driver's mobile phone was in switched off mode. This had raised suspicion about his involvement in the incident.

"The investigation is on in the case on and we are awaiting the postmortem report. It is likely to reach us tomorrow," said deputy commissioner of police, Satyabrata Bhoi.