NEW DELHI: India on Friday said the Odisha Police is investigating the death of a Nepali student at Odisha’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University, the second such incident involving a Nepali student at the institution in less than three months.
The body of the student enrolled in a computer science programme was found hanging in her room in the girls’ hostel on Thursday evening, police officials said. Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissioner Suresh Dev Datta Singh said the matter is being treated as an unnatural death.
On February 16, another Nepali girl, enrolled in a BTech course at KIIT University, was found dead in her hostel room. Her death triggered protests by Nepali students at the institution and was taken up by Kathmandu with its Indian counterparts.
In the wake of a call by Nepal’s foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba for an investigation into Thursday’s incident, the external affairs ministry said a “thorough enquiry is currently being conducted by the Odisha Police”. The ministry said India is committed to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of all international students.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic demise of a Nepali student of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family during this difficult time,” the ministry said in a statement.
Indian authorities are in close contact with Nepali counterparts, the Odisha state government and the KIIT management to “ensure real-time communication and coordination in this matter”. The state government has extended full support to the dead girl’s family, the ministry said.
Deuba said in a social media post on Friday that she was “deeply saddened” by the death of the Nepali student. “Immediately after the incident, the ministry of foreign affairs initiated diplomatic initiatives to investigate the truth of the incident with high-ranking officials of the government of India, the government of Odisha, and Nepal’s embassy in Delhi,” she said in the post in Nepalese.
Nepal’s ambassador to India, Shankar Sharma, said in a separate social media post that the embassy is closely coordinating with the external affairs ministry, Odisha government, the police and the university for a “thorough investigation”.
The Odisha government said in a statement that local police were informed about the “alleged suicide of a girl student from Nepal” at 8.10 pm on Thursday and that the girl’s parents were immediately informed about the incident by the university authorities.
It said senior civilian and police officials went to the university to take “necessary action” and to collect evidence.
In the case of the earlier death in February, it later emerged that the 20-year-old Nepali student had filed a complaint with KIIT University about the alleged sexual harassment by a fellow student but no action was taken by the university authorities despite the complaint.
India’s National Human Rights Commission described KIIT’s inaction as “gross negligence”. The 23-year-old man, a third-year BTech student accused of sexual harassment, was arrested a day after the student’s death.