Five people arrested in connection with the forcible eviction of Nepali students from hostels of Odisha's Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) have got bail. Those arrested include KIIT's Director General of Human Resources Sibananda Mishra (59), Director (Administration) Pratap Kumar Chamupati (51), hostel director Sudhir Kumar Rath (59), and two security guards Ramakant Nayak (45) and Jogendra Behera (25). The arrests come days after protests by Nepali students following the suicide of Nepali student Prakriti Lamsal.
The student had committed suicide in the hostel room
Prakriti Lamsal (20), a third-year B.Tech (Computer Science) student at KIIT in the city, allegedly committed suicide in her hostel room on Sunday afternoon, triggering unrest on the campus. The incident has sparked state-wide outrage and the issue was also raised in the Assembly. Earlier, the Odisha Police handed over the body of the Nepali girl to her father after postmortem at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. The girl's father Sunil Lamsal was present here with his friends. Sunil said that they are planning to take the body to Nepal.
When the situation worsened, Nepali students were thrown out of the hostel.
The situation on the campus started deteriorating as soon as the news of the suicide spread. Seeing this, KIIT officials in a hurry allegedly threw some Nepali students out of the hostel and left them at Cuttack railway station without making any arrangements for their travel. Some students claimed, 'We do not have money to buy food, water, or train tickets.' Many students boarded the Puri-Patna Express train in the general compartment as they could not get reserved tickets.
Police registered two cases.
Bhubaneswar DCP Pinak Mishra said, 'Police have registered two cases, one in connection with the suicide by hanging based on a complaint received from the girl's cousin and the other regarding the social media video, in which security personnel and employees of the private university are seen misbehaving and beating the students protesting the incident.'
Released video message and apologized
Meanwhile, despite the apology by KIIT officials, the students staged a sit-in on the campus and demanded a personal apology from two women officers who allegedly insulted the Nepali students and other students living in the hostel. Accepting the students' demand, two women officers Janati Nath and Manjusha Pandey released a video message on KIIT's official 'X' handle and apologized.
The Odisha government took the matter seriously.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government took the matter seriously and formed a three-member high-level investigation team headed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home). Other members of the team are the secretaries of Higher Education and the Women and Child Development Department.
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