Bhubaneswar:
In the aftermath of a tragic incident involving the suicide of a Nepalese student at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, the local police have taken further action. On Thursday, five more staff members of the private engineering college were arrested for their role in assaulting Nepalese students who were ordered to vacate their hostel rooms.
This latest development brings the total number of arrests to 11, including an engineering student who was previously booked for allegedly abetting the suicide of the 20-year-old Nepalese woman. The woman’s death on Sunday sparked widespread protests among Nepalese students demanding justice.
According to the Infocity Police Station, the five newly arrested staff members were identified through CCTV footage, which showed them assaulting the students between 11 AM and 12:20 PM on Monday. The police stated that the KIIT staff had abruptly instructed the students to leave the hostel, and upon seeing the students were slow to comply, the staff members became aggressive, using abusive language and physically attacking the students.
The police produced the accused in court, where their bail petition was rejected, and they were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. This follows an earlier incident where five other KIIT employees were arrested but managed to secure bail, a decision that drew criticism from various quarters.
The police have registered two cases related to the incident: one concerning the suicide of the Nepalese student and the other regarding the subsequent assault on the Nepalese youths allegedly by KIIT staff.
