Student’s death sparks outrage among students at IITKGP

A semi-decomposed body of a 23-year-old student, Faizan Ahmed, was recovered from his hostel room on the campus recently.  

As many as 2,000 students participated in an open-house discussion with Director VK Tewari following an outrage among students over the death of Ahmed Faizan. The session that began at 9 pm on Friday continued till 7am on Saturday.  

A semi-decomposed body of a 23-year-old student, Faizan Ahmed, was recovered from his hostel room on the campus recently. Ahmed was a third-year student at the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur. The students who attended the open-house session argued that the institute has witnessed five suicides in the past three years but the authorities have not done anything to address their mental health issues. They are demanding immediate resignation of the Director for his failure in handling “lapses” that occurred following the incident. 

Open to any probe: IITKGP Deputy Director 

During the meeting, IIT Kharagpur assured the agitating students that adequate steps would be taken to address their concerns. Dean of Students Affairs, Dhrubajyoti Sen, submitted his resignation to the institute authorities on October 19 in the wake of the incident but it is yet to be accepted. 

Amit Patra, Deputy Director of the IIT Kharagpur, also issued a statement tendering “unconditional apologies” and taking “responsibility for the lapses”. He said, “The police probe is on and we are awaiting that. We are open to all types of probes — CBI or CID or judicial. There may be some loopholes in our system. We will rectify once they come to light.” 

Family yet to receive autopsy report 

Meanwhile, the mother of the deceased alleged that he could not have died by suicide and demanded a proper probe into the matter, the institute claimed that no foul play was suspected and said it was looking into the matter. The family members of the deceased have also alleged that they were yet to receive a report of the postmortem examination. 

Aniruddha Mitra, the lawyer hired by the Ahmed’s family, said if they were not given the report at the earliest, they would file a petition in the high court expressing dissatisfaction with the probe by the Kharagpur police. 

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