KIIT suicide row: After Nepali students flag safety concerns, embassy officials reach out to Odisha govt

The protesting students allege that the student was facing harassment and blackmail from 21-year-old Advik Srivastava, a college mate and Lucknow resident already arrested on abetment to suicide charges, and she had reported these to the university.

According to Odisha’s Higher Education Minister Suryavanshi Suraj, embassy officials “emphasised on the ensure safety and security of students from Nepal and requested that the students shouldn’t face mental harassment (by the institution) after their return to the campus”.

“We assured that this would not happen and we have also issued a directive to the University in this regard,” he said after the meeting. “The Odisha government will ensure full proof security of the students from Nepal and the state government will soon issue a helpline number, which will instil confidence among the students. Efforts are being made to bring back the students, who have already reached Nepal and are in different parts of India. Less than 100 students from Nepal reached the campus Tuesday.”

On Monday – a day after the student’s death – the KIIT asked over 500 protesting students from Nepal to leave the campus immediately, with buses being arranged to drop them off at different railway stations. Following Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s intervention, the university announced it had withdrawn its decision and allowed students to remain on campus.

Meanwhile, the Odisha Police are probing if the 20-year-old student from Nepal who died by suicide in Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University was facing “harassment and blackmail”.

An FIR lodged on the back of a complaint from Lamsal’s cousin claims that the accused was blackmailing the deceased before she killed herself. Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner Suresh Dev Dutta Singh said Srivastava had been sent to police remand for three days.

“We will interrogate the accused in detail during the remand period. We will try to strengthen whatever evidence we already have with us. The police will inquire into the allegations of harassment and try to corroborate during the probe,” Singh told reporters, adding that the laptop and mobile phone of the accused have already been seized and sent to the forensic science laboratory for detailed examination.

A high-power fact-finding committee that’s looking into the circumstances leading to the alleged suicide also visited the campus as part of their inquiry.

“We will discuss the issue with various parties including the affected students and submit a report to the state government in time,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Satyabrata Sahu, who is heading the committee, told reporters.