Bhubaneswar: An undergraduate female student from Nepal allegedly died by suicide at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
This is the second such case at the private institute in less than three months.
Speaking to the media, Commissioner of Police S Devdutt Singh said the 18-years-old victim was a first-year student of computer science engineering. “The girl, who was alone in the room, did not respond when attendance was being taken at 7 pm. Then, upon checking, she was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room,” he said.
Singh further stated that circumstances that may have led to her alleged death by suicide are unclear.
“A scientific team has reached and is searching her room for evidence. Her friends are there and they are cooperating with us. No suicide note has been recovered. A UD case has been registered. We have not received any allegation yet…..We have spoken to the Nepal Embassy, which has informed her parents. The parents will reach in the morning after which a postmortem will be conducted,” he said.
The CP said that the campus is now peaceful. “Everyone is cooperating with the police,” he added.
The Odisha government, in a press statement, said that local police received information about the alleged suicide of a girl student from Nepal at around 8.10 pm. Parents of the girl were informed about the incident immediately by the university authorities.
“In this hour of distress, the state government extends its support to the family of the deceased and offers its condolences to them. On receipt of the information, senior officers including the Commissioner of Police and Revenue Divisional Commissioner rushed to the site to inquire into the circumstances leading to the unfortunate incident and take necessary action in the matter. The forensic team is at the spot to collect evidence,” it added.
On February 16, a 20-year-old Nepali student, Prakriti Lamsal, had allegedly died by suicide on the campus, which later snowballed into a major crisis over handling of the incident by the authorities. She was also studying computer science and allegedly took the extreme step after being harassed by a fellow student, who was arrested a day later from the airport here while allegedly trying to flee the city.
The Odisha government had then constituted a high-level fact-finding committee to inquire into all aspects of the alleged suicide.
