IIT-Kharagpur student’s murder: ‘How could institute and police cover up so much,’ asks Faizan’s mother

But Rehana and the rest of her family alleged foul play right from the start, saying that he had been subjected to ragging on campus and expressing dissatisfaction with the police investigation and handling of the matter by the IIT authorities.

Now with forensic reports showing signs of a gunshot wound and a stab wound on his neck, Rehana says she cannot bear to think of what her son had been put through.

“I could never have imagined that my boy was tortured like this… I don’t even know how I am living with this knowledge… All I know is that now I don’t even feel like this could have been a student’s work,” she told The Indian Express Friday.

“He could have been beaten up during ragging, maybe have gotten his limbs broken. But a gunshot wound and stabbing seems like something different. How could the IIT administration and police have covered so much up and passed it off as a suicide?”

Since Faizan’s death, Rehana and her husband Salim have been continuously tracking the case through their lawyers in Kolkata from their home in Tinsukia and first pushed for the investigation of the case by the SIT. When Faizan’s body was exhumed last May on the orders of the Calcutta High Court, she was there at the Amolapatty Kabrastan in Dibrugarh.

“I haven’t been able to eat, I haven’t been able to drink since his death. It will be three years this October. A few months ago, I wondered if I should stop pursuing the case but now that there has been such a big discovery, I can’t do it. New things keep coming to light even today but we still can’t find those who are responsible for this.”