The body of 20-year-old Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year B.Tech student at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, was handed over to her family late Tuesday night after a post-mortem at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar.
Prakriti, hailing from Kathmandu, Nepal, was found dead in her hostel room on Sunday afternoon in a suspected case of suicide.
Following the incident, the Odisha government has formed a three-member fact-finding committee to investigate the circumstances leading to Prakriti’s death. The panel, headed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), includes the Secretaries of the Higher Education and Women and Child Development departments. Their mandate is to determine the events surrounding the student’s demise and to assess the university’s response, particularly concerning the eviction of Nepali students who were protesting the incident.
In response to the tragedy, KIIT University has suspended two hostel officials and terminated two security staff members, acknowledging lapses in handling the situation.
The incident has sparked significant unrest among the student community, with protests erupting on campus. The situation escalated to the extent that Nepal’s Prime Minister, KP Sharma Oli, addressed the issue on social media, announcing that two officers from the country’s embassy in New Delhi had been dispatched to Odisha to assess the situation.
