Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack commissioner of police and the vice chancellor of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) to inquire into the alleged murder of a tribal student in KISS and submit an action-taken report within two weeks.
The NHRC issued the direction on Tuesday after taking cognisance of a complaint.
The allegations made in the complaint prima facie seem to be violations of the human rights of the victim, the letter issued to the authorities.
The NHRC letter stated that the complainant alleged that a minor tribal student from Keonjhar studying at the residential educational institute Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was killed inside the hostel after a minor altercation on the night of December 11.
The complainant further alleged that the incident was deliberately concealed by the authorities concerned, who did not inform the police or the parents and gave misleading information about the cause of injury and death, the letter stated.
The complainant also alleged that the child was taken to an institutional hospital where the facts were allegedly hidden, despite a visible mark of strangulation of the neck of the minor student, and the body was handed over to the parents without proper legal procedures, such as informing local authorities or conducting a post-mortem by KISS and KIIT authorities.
The complainant alleged that the incident reflects serious negligence, suppression of facts, and a larger pattern of unsafe conditions for students, especially tribal students, and requested urgent intervention of the commission for investigation, accountability of the authorities despite suicides in the recent past, and protection of students’ rights.
Earlier, Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh had said that the death of a tribal student at KISS was a case of murder and the institute authorities had not informed the local police regarding the incident.
The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has also sought a report from the Odisha government and decided to conduct an inquiry into the alleged murder of a 14-year-old tribal student at KISS.
