‘Justice will be served’: IIT-Kharagpur student’s kin on HC order to add murder charge

A day after the Calcutta high court directed West Bengal Police to include murder charges in its first information report (FIR) linked to the death of a 23-year-old IIT-Kharagpur student last year, the deceased’s family on Wednesday said they “now see a ray of hope that justice will be served”.

Read here: ‘Now see ray of hope’: Mother of IIT student on HC order to probe son’s death

“Authorities at IIT-Kharagpur tried to make up a story that my son committed suicide even as we insisted that he was murdered. We now see a ray of hope. Justice will be served,” the mother of the deceased student said.

There was no immediate reaction from IIT-Kharagpur on the matter.

The student’s mother also alleged that local police had failed to carry out a proper investigation and refused to file a murder case despite the family’s complaint. “The police refused to lodge an FIR on the basis of our complaint. It is now clear that they did not investigate the matter properly,” she said.

“Only a mother knows the pain of losing her son this way. I don’t want any mother to go through this phase. No son deserves to be killed like this,” she added.

The deceased, a resident of Tinsukia in Assam, was a third-year student of mechanical engineering at the institute. His body was found in a semi-decomposed condition inside his hostel room at Lala Lajpat Rai Hall of Residence on October 14 last year.

The institute claimed he died by suicide, following which a case of unnatural death was registered at Kharagpur town police station.

The student’s father, however, refused to accept the institute’s argument and moved the high court last year, seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT).

On April 25, a single bench of justice Rajesekhar Mantha ordered exhumation and a second post-mortem examination of the student, after it was informed that a chemical named Emplura (sodium nitrate), which is essentially used to preserve meat, was seized from the crime scene and that injuries, which were likely inflicted before the death, were found on the student’s arms.

“The exercise (exhumation and second post mortem) is vital and necessary for arriving at the truth behind the death of… (the student),” the order said.

The Bengal government challenged this order but it was upheld by a division bench on May 19. The second post-mortem was carried out on May 27.

Read here: IIT Kharagpur student death: HC seeks independent forensic expert’s opinion

On Tuesday, justice Mantha observed that “there are serious questions that need to be addressed by police and the IO (investigating officer)” and directed police to add the murder charge.

“We have not received the court order yet. We will take action according to legal provisions once we get it,” West Midnapore SP Dhritiman Sarkar said.