‘Gross negligence’: NHRC holds KIIT responsible for student’s suicide

During the probe, the NHRC team found that the deceased had lodged a complaint with the KIIT’s International Relations Office (IRO) on March 12 last year that the suspect was allegedly “blackmailing” her, even writing about how it was affecting her mental state. She had also mentioned that she would commit suicide if the accused did not stop threatening to make some private photos public.

The probe team found that though the IRO referred the case to the disciplinary committee of KIIT, the committee only directed the accused to delete the photos but did not take “necessary” steps.

The incident prompted protests at KIIT, led by students from Nepal, and snowballed into a diplomatic row. (PTI File Photo)

“They (University authorities) disposed of the matter in a very casual manner. The IRO office and disciplinary committee just get undertakings from the victim and the alleged accused rather than informing or referring to this complaint to the internal complaints committee or the local police station,” the NHRC report said.

The rights panel has also taken exception to the KIIT authorities’ decision to evict other Nepalese students protesting over the girl’s death.

“The university officials have admitted the fact that almost 1,000-1,100 students had left their hostel on February 17 whereas almost 180 girl students left the hostel in such a hast which may lead to some other untoward incident, but college authorities did not bothered safety of girl students and they were thrown out from campus,” read the order.

The NHRC has directed the Odisha chief secretary to submit an action taken report on its observation and asked police to file a status report on investigation. It has suggested that the University Grants Commission to consider initiating action against the institute.