Bhubaneswar: Infocity Police on Thursday took Advik Srivastava, the main accused in connection with the alleged death by suicide of Prakriti Lamsal, a Nepalese student of Bhubaneswar’s KIIT University, on a three-day remand.
Advik, a resident of Lucknow, has been charged under Section 108 (abetment of suicide) of the BNS .
The seized mobile phones and laptops of both the victim and the accused have been sent to a forensic lab for analysis, police sources said.
Viral Audio Clip
Additionally, the high-power committee formed by the Mohan Majhi government informed that a voice spectrography of Advik will be conducted to ascertain the authenticity of multiple audios, featuring purported conversation between the accused, who is said to be her ex-boyfriend, and the victim, doing the rounds on social media platforms.
The viral audio clip that purportedly captures the verbal abuse from his ex-boyfriend had intensified demands for justice. Two individuals can be heard addressing each other as ‘Advik’ and ‘Prakriti’ in the clip.
Prakrati’s cousin, who lodged a complaint with Infocity police, had alleged that she had been blackmailed by a male student from the same university, which may have contributed to her taking her own life. He further alleged that she had complained about it at the university’s International Relations Office, but no action was taken.
The private university also noted that Prakriti was reportedly in a relationship with another student and may have taken this extreme step due to undisclosed reasons.
Odisha assures safety of Nepali students
The unrest began on Sunday after 20-year-old engineering student was found hanging in her hostel room. It snowballed into a major controversy threatening international relationships, after the institution allegedly cracked down on the agitating students, demanding justice for her, and evicted them from the hostel without making any travel arrangements, prompting the Nepal’s Prime Minister to intervene.
To salvage the situation, the Odisha government constituted a high-power committee to investigate the matter. The university also issued an apology and suspended three of its employees for ‘misconduct’ and sacked two security guards, who had allegedly thrashed the agitating students.
Meanwhile, founder of KIIT and KISS Achyuta Samanta has been asked to appear before the high-level committee the constituted by the state government to probe the matter.
As per the communication sent by the Higher Education department, Samanta has been asked to appear before the panel at 6:30 pm on Friday.
He has been asked to appear before the committee at the mini-conference hall at the new annexe building of the state guest house and to adduce evidence with adequate documentary evidence before the panel.
Also Read: Odisha Govt Sets Up Help Desk To Facilitate Safe Return Of KIIT Nepali Students
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, who was in Rajasthan, spoke over the phone with officials from Nepal, Sanjeeb Das Sharma and Navin Raj Adhikari, who held discussions with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling and Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, along with Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja at the State Guest House here during the day on the evolving situation.
He assured justice for Prakriti and urged the Nepali students to return to the campus and resume their studies.
Also Read: Odisha CM Mohan Majhi Assures Justice, Urges Nepal Students To Return To KIIT
The three-member panel under chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Satyabrata Sahu also interacted with Nepali students at KIIT University and guaranteed their safety.
The KIIT campus is now under police control.
