Bhubaneswar, May 2: A Nepali undergraduate student was found dead in her hostel room at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening, marking the second such incident involving a Nepali student within three months.
According to Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner S Devdutt Singh, the deceased, a computer science student from Birgunj, Nepal, is suspected to have died by suicide.
"She was found dead inside her hostel room on the campus. The exact circumstances leading to her suspected suicide are yet to be ascertained,” Singh said. Police have launched an investigation into the incident.
This tragic development follows a similar case that happened less than three months, when a 20-year-old Nepali student, a computer science student died by suicide. That case had sparked outrage after it was revealed that the student had allegedly been blackmailed by a fellow classmate. The situation further escalated when reports emerged of racial and derogatory remarks made by some faculty members towards Nepali students.
The accused in the earlier incident, Advik Shrivastava, a third-year BTech student, was arrested by the police at the Bhubaneswar airport while allegedly attempting to flee. The university came under intense scrutiny for its handling of the matter, especially after it reportedly asked over 1,000 Nepali students to vacate the campus.
The intervention of India’s Ministry of External Affairs eventually led KIIT to shift to damage-control mode and issue formal apologies.
Following a detailed investigation, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) held the university accountable for the sequence of events that led to the earlier suicide.
The NHRC found that the victim had been subjected to sexual harassment and that the university’s International Relations Office failed to take timely action, thereby violating her fundamental rights to equality and dignity.
In response to the crisis, the Odisha government had constituted a high-level committee, headed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), to look into the alleged misconduct and reported use of force by KIIT officials during incidents on February 16 and 17. However, the committee is yet to submit its report.
The fresh incident has once again raised concerns about student safety, institutional accountability, and the treatment of international students on Indian campuses.
