KIIT Student Suicide: Many Continue To Boycott Classes, Others Made To Sign 'No Indiscipline' Undertaking

“Students continue to boycott classes in the wake of inaction by the institute authorities. On Thursday, only 20 students out of the total 80 had attended classes. Students are left with no confidence of their own safety at the institute after what the authorities did to Nepali students. We have placed our demands before the education minister, who has asked us to wait for two days lest we go back to protests," said an engineering student speaking to News18.

Meanwhile, even as the institute has now been appealing to the evicted Nepali students to return to campus, none of those who have reached home have come back. Students are set to have their mid-semester examinations starting next week.

“After the eviction when everything came out in the media, the institute made an appeal to those students who they beat up and left to fend for themselves. None of them who already reached Nepal has come back yet. Only those who could not arrange for travel or had managed to go to their relatives’ places in adjoining cities came back for not having other option," said a final year BTech student, not wishing to be named.

Those who came back were still made to write an undertaking by the institute. The undertaking document seen by News18 asked students to state: “They will not take part in any indiscipline till their stay in the university; assure that they will not repeat any indiscipline activity in the future; they be reconsidered and allowed to stay in the university/hostel and; they will abide by hostel rules," the student added.

“There is still an attempt being made by the institute to silent students. We got to know about the insane kind of undertaking document being made to sign by students who returned just for a lack of option to go back home. How can the institute even say that when they were the ones who beat up mercilessly? They (the institute authorities) can target us any time again. It doesn’t feel safe to be get back to campus. I have still not been able to come to terms about what happened that night," said a Nepalese student, who reached home on Tuesday night, speaking to News18 over the phone.

KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta had appealed to Nepali students in a video message saying: “We are saddened and shocked by what has happened so far. Some Nepali students have returned to campus and are continuing their studies. We request other students to return to campus and start studies in an academic environment again."

Students demand action, meet education minister

According to the memorandum presented to the minister, the collective demands of KIIT students include – an impartial probe into the girl’s suicide; release of CCTV footage from all hostels housing Nepalese students during their forceful eviction; identifying and action against those who assaulted students as well as who ordered this; termination of two staffers, who made derogatory remarks against Nepali students; Nepalese students must be allowed a rescheduled examination for their mid-semester exams; no student should face any form of threat, intimidation, or retaliation from the institute concerning their examinations, academic results, or placement opportunities in the future; and that the institute must compensate the affected students for their travel, accommodation, food, the phones that were damaged by the security and the mental and physical distress they have endured during this forceful eviction, among others.

Sanghamitra Jena, AISF state president, Odisha, said that KIIT doesn’t have a students’ body of its own. “We met the state education minister along with three KIIT students. He assured us to take action and look into the students’ demands and sought two days time for the same. He also assured students that the education department will come up with a distress helpline where they can get immediate help," said Jena.

There have been issues with the institute’s anti-harassment cell as well, she added.

On February 16, a 20-year-old Nepalese BTech (computer science) student Prakriti Lamsal, died by suicide at her hostel room allegedly after being harassed by a fellow male student, following which protests broke out on campus led by Nepali students. These students were then targeted and forced out of campus. They were dropped at the nearest railway stations in the early hours next day without any arrangements made for their food or travel.

News18 had on February 19 reported that students were assaulted for protesting and made to delete protest videos from their phones by private security guards on campus.

The Odisha police had earlier this week arrested the male student in connection with Lamsal’s suicide as well as five institute staffers for “misbehaving and manhandling" students.