Five More Arrested in Connection with Nepalese Student's Death Row Incident in Bhubaneswar.
Arpit Pattnaik
Five additional individuals were arrested on Thursday in connection with the incident surrounding the death of a Nepali student at KIIT Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar. According to sources, the Commissionerate of Police detained the five based on complaints filed at the Infocity Police Station and subsequently forwarded them to court.
The court rejected the bail pleas of the five arrested individuals, ordering them to be sent to jail. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The arrested individuals include four staff members: Ajaya Kumar Swain, Saroj Kumar Routray, Chandan Kumar Swain, and Sudhansusekhar Behera, along with Ramakanta Sethi, an Assistant Field Officer at KIIT.
It is alleged that the five individuals assaulted some students on February 17 while the students were leaving the campus in accordance with university instructions. As a result of this assault, the students left the institution immediately out of fear. The police reviewed CCTV footage from the day of the incident, leading to the arrests.
With these latest arrests, a total of ten individuals have been detained in relation to the incident following the death of the Nepali student, Prakriti Lamsal. Earlier, on February 18, the police had arrested KIIT's Director General, Shibananda Mishra; the Director of Administration, Pratap Kumar Champati; and the Hostel Director, Sudhir Kumar Rath, in connection with the case. Additionally, two security guards identified as Ramakanta Nayak (45) and Jogendra Behera (25) were also arrested, and a criminal case was filed against them.
Prakriti Lamsal, a 20-year-old third-year Computer Science student, reportedly committed suicide in her hostel room on the evening of February 16. Following a complaint lodged by Siddhant Sigdel, her cousin and a third-year B.Tech (Mechanical) student at KIIT, the police arrested Advik Srivastava, a 21-year-old third-year B.Tech (Mechanical) student, for allegedly harassing Prakriti, which was believed to have contributed to her death. The police have taken him into custody for three days for further questioning.
