IIT-K student’s death: After directive from NHRC,police record kin’s statements

Rakesh’ father Vinay Kumar and maternal Uncle Shristi Choudhary gave their statement before Circle Officer Kalyanpur,Laxmi Niwas Mishra on Wednesday morning. Choudhary told The Indian Express: “There are many loopholes in the theory of IIT-K authorities. We in a letter to the NHRC on July 22 had appealed for its intervention.”

He said Thakur was never a patient of psychiatric disorder.

He said they are also planning to move an application in the Allahabad High Court for a CBI inquiry in the matter.

Rakesh’ father Vinay Kumar said they were asked by the IIT-K team to take Rakesh’s body home without a postmortem.

He said they fail to understand the reason behind the delay by the institute authorities in taking his son to the hospital.

“We are not surprised to know the IIT-K team investigation has gone in favour of the institute. An impartial investigation will prove them guilty,” he added.

DIG,Kanpur,Ashok Mutha Jain stated that the issue is being investigated by Kalyanpur Circle Officer. He said: “If the charges levelled by the family members of Rakesh are found correct,we will lodge an FIR against the guilty.”

Kalyanpur CO said they have recorded the statements of the deceased’s family members and the other aspects related to the issue are under investigation.

IIT-K Registrar Sanjeev S Kashalkar said: “We decided to send the boy’s body to his home in Bihar when his family members who were present then in the hospital confirmed that they did not want a postmortem and accepted it as a natural death.”

The family,he added,had not raised any such issue at the time.

A resident of Subhash Kesa village under Muzaffarpur district of Bihar,Rakesh had got admission in M Tech course of IIT-K in July 2009.

In June,Rakesh had gone home for a few days. When he returned to the institute on June 27,he was suffering from fever.

According to institute authorities,initially,Rakesh was admitted in the health centre of the institute. When his condition did not improve,he was taken to Mahendru Psychiatric Centre in Sarvodaya Nagar area on July 4 where he died on July 7.