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The Nepalese government sent two officials from its New Delhi embassy to look into the matter, the Nepalese Prime Minister said.
The Odisha-based college, KIIT, has urged Nepali students to resume classes and return to their hostels following the girl’s suicide. (IMAGE: X)
Odisha’s Kalinga Institute Of Industrial Technology (KIIT) on Monday issued an appeal to Nepali students urging them to return to the campus and resume classes after a third-year BTech student died allegedly by suicide in her hostel.
“There was an unfortunate incident which took place late in the evening yesterday on the KIIT campus. Immediately after the incident, police investigated the matter and apprehended the culprit. The KIIT administration has taken all-out efforts to restore normalcy in the campus and hostels to resume the academic activities. An appeal is made to all our Nepali students who have or plan to leave the campus to return and resume the classes,” the university said in a statement.
The student, identified as Prakriti Lamsal from Nepal, ended her life because of a “love affair”, the college claimed in a statement released earlier on the same day.
The deceased’s cousin lodged a complaint at Infocity police station in Bhubaneswar alleging that his sister hanged herself in her hostel room on Sunday. He suspected that another male student of the varsity was blackmailing his sister for which she committed suicide.
The college also claimed that there was mild tension among the Nepali students studying there over the girl’s death.
Many students from Nepal assembled on the KIIT campus on Sunday night and staged demonstrations demanding justice.
Since there was mild tension among the Nepali students studying at KIIT over the girl’s death, the university authorities had a discussion with the agitating foreign students. “Keeping in view the situation, the Nepal students have been sent to their respective homes. The situation presently remains calm,” the KIIT said.
Some of the students speaking to news agency PTI said that they were told to vacate the hostel room.
Two busloads of Nepali students were dropped at the Cuttack Railway Station on Monday. “We were told to vacate the hostel room and dropped at the railway station. We had to appear for an examination on February 28…” a male student told reporters at the Cuttack railway station.
“The police have sealed the deceased girl’s room and kept the body at the mortuary till the arrival of her parents,” a varsity official said.
The Nepali government intervened by dispatching two officials from its New Delhi embassy and said that arrangements were made for students to either return home or stay at the hostel campus, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said.
“Our Embassy in New Delhi has dispatched two officers to counsel Nepali students affected in Odisha. Additionally, arrangements have been made to ensure they have the option to either remain in their hostel or return home, based on their preference,” his office said.
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