Odisha: Five arrested including three directors of private university in Nepali students assault case

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Police in Odisha on Tuesday arrested five persons including three directors of KIIT University on the charges of assaulting students hailing from Nepal following a protest over the suicide of a female student from the Himalayan country.

The security guards of the private university – Ramakanta Nayak (45) and Jogendra Behera (25) – were arrested for assaulting the Nepali students. Besides, the cops also apprehended the KIIT University’s Director General (HR) Sibananda Mishra (59), Director (Admn) Pratap Kumar Chamupaty (51), and Director of Hostels Sudhir Kumar Rath (59) in connection with the case.

Sources said that after the students came to know about the tragic death of the female student in a hostel of the private university on Sunday, they held a protest against the authorities of the University and demanded justice for the deceased.

Later, the University administration asked the Nepali students to vacate the hostels announcing sine die.

“On February 17, between 11 am and 12.20 pm, when the students were vacating the hostel and the premises of the educational institution, the accused persons suddenly reached there and asked them to leave as soon as possible. When the accused persons realised there was a delay in vacating the hostel, they suddenly got angry and hurled abuses at the students. They also attacked the students and also thrashed them,” said a senior police official on Tuesday.

Odisha government on Tuesday constituted a high-level fact-finding committee to inquire into the alleged ill-treatment meted out to other students from the neighbouring country by the authorities of the KIIT university in Bhubaneswar.

Notably, the deceased Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year B Tech (Computer Science) student of the KIIT University ended her life on Sunday following harassment by her estranged boyfriend Advik Shrivastava, a student of B.Tech (Mechanical).

Police arrested the accused from Bhubaneswar Airport while he was trying to flee the city on Monday. The father of the deceased female student on Tuesday demanded justice for his daughter.

Prakriti’s father Sunil Lamsal, who reached Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, said that he has full faith in the Odisha government and the police administration that they will ensure he gets justice.

Meanwhile, expressing deep regret over the whole incident, the KIIT University has terminated two security guards and suspended three senior staff of the institution.

“KIIT authorities and the entire staff deeply regret the incident that occurred on 16th February. Two Security staff were terminated immediately. Two senior hostel officials and one senior administrative officer of the International Relations Office (IRO), were suspended pending thorough enquiry. The staff have been actively persuading students to return to the campus as soon as possible,” informed the university registrar on Tuesday.

–IANS