The Nepali student at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar who died by suicide had complained twice to the institute’s International Relations Office (IRO), students said on Wednesday.
Police had on Tuesday arrested Advik Srivastava, the main accused in connection with the suicide of the BTech student, Prakriti Lamsal, 20.
Srivastava, 21, a third-year BTech (Mechanical) student, is the deceased’s ex-boyfriend. He has been accused of abetting the suicide of Prakriti and arrested under Section 108 of the BNS. He was nabbed on the basis of the complaint filed by Prakriti’s cousin Siddhant Sigdel. Srivastava hails from Lucknow and is the son of a BJP leader who is also a builder.
“Prakriti committed suicide on 16 February but before that she complained in the IRO twice against her boyfriend that he was harassing and molesting her,” a third-year student of computer science, who is from Nepal, told The Telegraph Online.
Sourced by the correspondent
“The IRO then took an undertaking from him and suspended him for a month. We were having a fest in our campus for three days. The day our friend committed suicide she had even gone to the fest. Last Sunday, we protested the entire night in the campus and the next morning we were greeted with harsh words from our professors and teachers. The registrar of our university announced in the protest area that all Nepali students must leave,” the third-year computer science student said.
Prakriti, also a third-year BTech (Computer Science) student, was found dead on Sunday afternoon. Authorities called it a suicide but suspicions surrounding the circumstances led to student protests.
“We do not know what happened in the girls hostel. The suicide area was sealed much later. We are not even sure if there was evidence tampering,” the third-year student said.
The Nepali student alleged the university responded with force to the protest instead of addressing their concerns. Videos circulating online show students being assaulted and verbally abused.
Notice handed to students of KIIT after the protests
One Nepali student accused a senior KIIT functionary of saying: “Saalo tum logo ko dikhata hoon, aadha ghanta main Nepal bhejunga, [I will send you bastards to Nepal within half an hour].”
The student added: “We were beaten and abused badly. They even called gym trainers and goons to deal with us. Then we were pushed into a bus and left to our fate. We had no train booking or anything as such. All Nepali students were simply asked to vacate the campus. Then all of us managed on our own, some came to Kolkata by train and then are now managing to go to Nepal and some are managing to take a route to Nepal via Ranchi.”
E-mail sent to parents from the university
In an e-mail Tuesday to parents of students, the KIIT assured that the ambience at the deemed university was completely normal and regular classes had resumed smoothly.
“The university remains committed to providing a safe, secure and supportive environment for all students,” the email said. “We earnestly look forward to the return of our Nepali children to the campus.”
Another Nepali student, who also spoke under cover of anonymity because of the fear of retribution, said they were not satisfied.
“The institute does not care for international students like us. We were treated very badly after the protest. Now since the matter is out in the media, the university is sending us mails to call us back to the campus. If they care so much about students why did they throw us out in this manner at first? In two days everything changed? They are doing all this to ensure the matter dies down,” the student said.
The university authorities has removed one senior administrative officer of the IRO and two security guards for misbehaving with the students. The police arrested Ramakanta Nayak, 45, and Jogendra Behera, 25. All of them were forwarded to court.
The police had on Monday arrested three more employees of KIIT for the alleged misbehaviour with students. Those who have been arrested by the police include KIIT University director general (HR) Shibananda Mishra, director (administration) Pratap Kumar Chamupaty and director of hostels, Sudhir Kumar Rath.