Odisha govt initiates inquiry into KIIT incident; founder, others summoned
Feb 21, 2025
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], February 21 : Odisha Minister Sampad Chandra Swain on Friday said the state government has constituted a high-level committee to investigate the recent incident at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT). He added that the KIIT founder and other concerned individuals have been summoned.
"The government is proactive, and the KIIT founder, along with others concerned, has been summoned. A high-level committee has been formed, and the committee is doing the investigation; necessary action will be taken after the report of the investigation comes out," Swain told ANI.
Earlier in the day, KIIT Additional Registrar Shyam Sundar Behura said that Nepali students have started returning and the university is connected to the parents. He said that the university has been interacting with parents and they are all convinced that they will be sending their children to the university.
"They (Nepali students) have started returning. We had a very dedicated control room set up through which we are connected to the parents and they have already started coming from the 18th evening and they've all reached both boys and girls have also arrived. Along with that, I think all action has been taken, and what has been taken has already been intimated. And from yesterday also we are having video conferencing with the parents of the students, which directly our Vice Chancellor is doing."
Behura further added, "We had it yesterday. We had it today also, which is going on for one and half to two hours with the parents directly interacting and at least they are all convinced that they'll be sending their wards over here and because it's a continuous process, they are coming. We are taking all care of them, how they'll come, how they'll get settled. The classes have started. They all resumed the classes for now and everything is normal."
His remarks come as a third-year B Tech student was found dead in her hostel room on February 16, following which, Nepali students staged a protest claiming that she was harassed by a fellow student and the college did not act despite multiple complaints.
An accused student, identified by police as Advik Srivastava, was arrested on February 17 and sent to judicial custody on the same day, as per a press statement by Police Commissionerate, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack.
