Nepali student dies by suicide in Bhubaneswar’s KIIT hostel, second in 3 months
Police said the Nepali student who died by suicide on Thursday evening was from Birgunj area of Nepal
BHUBANESWAR: A Nepali undergraduate student found dead in her hostel room in Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) on Thursday evening, the second such case in less than three months.
Bhubaneswar police Commissioner S Devdutt Singh said the girl was found dead in her hostel room on the campus and is suspected to have died by suicide. The circumstances that may have led her to die by suicide are unclear.
She was studying computer science and hails from Birgunj area of Nepal. The police reached the KIIT Campus and are investigating the case, Singh said.
The death on the campus comes less than three months after a 20-year-old Nepali student, also studying computer science, died by suicide following alleged blackmail by her classmate which later snowballed into a major crisis over some faculty members making racial and humiliating comments at the Nepali students.
The accused, Advik Shrivastava, a third-year B Tech student was later arrested by Bhubaneswar police at the city airport while he was allegedly trying to flee. The university had faced flak for its handling of the case when university officials ordered over 1,000 Nepali students to leave the campus. The external affairs ministry had subsequently intervened which led the university switch to damage-control mode and issue apologies.
The National Human Rights Commission which probed the case, held the university responsible for the sequence of events that led the student to die by suicide. NHRC said the victim was sexually harassed by the accused and the subsequent inaction by the university’s International Relations Office violated the deceased’s right to equality and right to live with dignity and led to her suicide.
The Odisha government which formed a high powered committee headed by additional chief secretary home to probe into reports of misconduct, including the use of force, against students by KIIT officials on February 16 evening and February 17, is yet to submit its report.
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