New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The illegal and unlawful activities by Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneshwar led to the suicides of two Nepalese students and the actions of the administration amount to criminal liability, a fact-finding panel set up the UGC has found.
The panel said that the “suicide could have been averted”.
The panel was constituted in May by the University Grants Commission (UGC) after a 20-year-old Nepalese student of KIIT was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her hostel room. The incident took place after the suicide of Prakriti Lamsal, another Nepalese student of the same institute, February 16.
“The university’s internal complaints committee (ICC) failed to take lawful action in reported sexual harassment cases. There was no transparency that the protocols for the investigation were followed. The girl had made complaints to the administration twice, much before this tragic incident. In both complaints, they decided to go for an illegal compromise.
The report noted that the university had the power to punish the boy after the first complaint. However, they “favoured” the boy by forcing an illegal compromise with the girl, which led to her suicide.
“This suicide case could have been averted,” the report noted.
Serious lapses in infrastructure and governance, ignorance of complaints of sexual harassment and prioritising the university’s reputation over regulations, law of land and international relations of the country, are among the “illegal and unlawful activities” on the university’s part, the panel said.
The committee has issued a set of strong recommendations, based on which the Commission is contemplating a freeze on the university’s expansion and departmental action against erring officials, among others.
It also observed that members of the internal complaints committee (ICC) and senior administrative personnel of the university “are liable for criminal punishment as per law”.
“Had KIIT University taken action to decide the reported harassment case as per law in the first case, the tragedy could have been avoided,” it said.
On February 16, a 20-year-old Nepali female student was found dead in her university hostel room. Subsequently, angry students began protesting on campus, demanding justice for her and alleging that the university had ignored complaints of harassment. When tensions escalated, the university forcibly evicted more than 500 Nepali students from the university.
` “The absence of a robust security framework allowed unchecked misconduct… We recommend that the university be issued strict directions and its compliance be reviewed with a physical revisit,” said the report.
The panel was headed by Nageshwar Rao, former Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University. Shasikala Wanjari, Vice Chancellor of the National Institute of Planning and Administration and HCS Rathore, former Vice Chancellor of the Central University of South Bihar, were its members. Sunita Siwach, Joint Secretary of the UGC, served as the Coordinating Officer of the Committee.
PTI
