Bhubaneswar, Jan. 31: Hundreds of engineering students today demonstrated at Master Canteen Square demanding a thorough probe into the mysterious death of a fellow student who studied at a private college in Chandaka.
The body of Mrunmay Prasad Baral, 21, was found on the railway tracks near Rambha in Ganjam district yesterday. Baral was on his way back from Visakhapatnam where he had gone on a study trip with his classmates.
The protestors kept Baral's body at Master Canteen Square and demanded compensation along with a thorough investigation.
"All the students who went on the study tour retuned to Bhubaneswar on Sunday expect my son. We tried to trace him and contacted the college authorities but they did not provide any satisfactory explanation on how he went missing. The railway police from Berhampur informed us about his death yesterday. We in the entire incident<>," said the father of the deceased, Manoranjan Baral.
Police said Mrunmay, a third year civil engineering student, had been to the study tour with 62 other students and three faculty members on January 26. The group returned to Bhubaneswar in the Vizag-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express on January 29.
While the police have registered a case of unnatural death, the students who had been on the trip with Baral do not know how he died.
"If my son fell from the train, how could it go unnoticed? The faculty members who accompanied the students should have tried to find him in the train. It is impossible that no one noticed he was missing," said the mother of the deceased. Yesterday, relatives and friends of the deceased demonstrated in front of the college. The protesters have alleged the institute was trying to hush up the matter.
"Though we sat on an agitation, not a single college official came to talk to us. The college authorities seem the least bothered about his death," said a friend of Baral.
Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said they would conduct a probe to ascertain the circumstances in which he died. He said: "We will interrogate the friends of the students who accompanied him on the trip."
