NHRC holds KIIT responsible for Nepal student's suicide in Odisha

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has found "gross negligence and omission" on the part of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) authorities in connection with the suicide of a 20-year-old student on February 16.

The third-year engineering student from Nepal was found dead in her hostel room, leading to huge protests on campus. The police officials later arrested an engineering student from the same college, Advik Srivastava, a resident of Lucknow, on charges of abetting her suicide.

Following a spot inquiry conducted between March 6 and 8, the NHRC submitted its report on March 27. “The conduct of the IRO and University officers/disciplinary committee and college authorities sufficient to show that there is gross negligence and omission on their part of IRO and university authorities which may treated amount to act of abetment to commit suicide on the part of the university officials, which finally resulted in her suicide,” the NHRC order stated.

The NHRC has directed the Odisha chief secretary to submit an action taken report on its findings and asked the police for a status update on the investigation. It has also suggested that the University Grants Commission (UGC) consider taking action against KIIT.

The commission found that the deceased had lodged a complaint with KIIT's International Relations Office (IRO) on March 12 last year, alleging that the accused had been blackmailing her. She had also mentioned how the harassment was affecting her mental health and had stated that she might take her own life if the threats continued.

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.

Although the IRO referred the matter to KIIT’s disciplinary committee, the committee merely directed the accused to delete the photos and failed to take further necessary action.

“The university authorities handled the case in an extremely casual manner. Instead of escalating the matter to the internal complaints committee or informing the police, the IRO and disciplinary committee merely obtained undertakings from both the victim and the accused,” the NHRC report stated.

The rights panel also criticised the university’s decision to evict Nepalese students protesting the girl’s death.

“The university officials acknowledged that around 1,000-1,100 students vacated their hostels on February 17, including nearly 180 female students who left in such a hurry that it could have led to further incidents. However, the college authorities showed no concern for their safety and instead forced them out of the campus,” the order noted.