The deceased was identified as Prakriti Lamsal from Nepal. She was a B-Tech third-year student of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), varsity Registrar said.
The deceased’s cousin complained to 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.
KIIT in a statement said: “A Nepali student studying in the third year of B-Tech committed suicide in the hostel yesterday. It is suspected that the student was in a love affair with another student studying at KIIT. It is suspected that the student may have committed suicide due to some reason.”
The KIIT said that the incident was immediately reported to the police.
Bhubaneswar DCP Pinak Mishra said: “We have registered a case at Infocity Police Station based on the allegation that a male student abated her suicide. The accused student is in police custody and subjected to interrogation. The police have seized the mobile phone, laptop, and other gadgets of the deceased woman. We are undertaking a scientific investigation into the matter.”
The DCP appealed to the students not to take the law into their own hands and to maintain peace.
Many students from Nepal assembled on the KIIT campus on Sunday night and staged a demonstration demanding justice.
Since there was mild tension among the Nepali students studying at KIIT over the girl’s death, the university authorities discussed it with the agitating foreign students. “Keeping in view the situation, the Nepal students have been sent to their respective homes. The situation presently remained calm,” the KIIT said.
Two platoons of police force were deployed to maintain law and order situation on the campus.
Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Prakash Chandra Pal said that the police were maintaining law and order both inside and outside the campus.
“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.
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 examination on February 28…” a male student told reporters at the Cuttack railway station.
Meanwhile, students from other states alleged that they were not allowed to go outside the hostel by private security guards of the varsity.
A video of a scuffle between students and private security guards of the varsity went viral on social media but PTI could not verify the authenticity of the video.
The KIIT authorities refused to comment on the allegations made by the students that they were not allowed to go outside the hostel.
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