Kolkata: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for CBI inquiry after the fresh forensic findings in IITian Faizan Ahmed’s death case.
Faizan Ahmed, a third year Mechanical Engineering student’s partially decomposed body was recovered inside a hostel within the IIT KGP campus on October 14, 2022. Recently, during a hearing in Calcutta High Court, forensic expert Dr AK Gupta reportedly submitted findings that Ahmed was hit on the head, stabbed in the neck, and then shot at point-blank range.
Presently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by IPS K Jayaraman is probing the case.
eNewsroom in its Exclusive report, had published the findings of the forensic expert on June 13.
Assam CM Sarma, who had written to Mamata Banerjee on October 18, 2022, soon after the news of Faizan’s death reached him, seeking her support, once again has written, “In view of the shocking findings of the latest forensic report, it is imperative that the perpetrators of the horrific as well as any other person involved in concealing the crime are brought to book, thereby ensuring justice to the decreased and the closure to the grief stricken parents. I, therefore, request you to kindly hand over the case to the CBI for a transparent and fair investigation of the crime.”
Sarma also attached his previous letter.
Meanwhile, yet another death was reported from IIT Kharagpur. This time, a fourth-year student, Devika Pillai, was found breathless in her hostel on Monday morning.
Pillai, a 21-year-old girl from Kerala, was a Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering student. She was living in Sarojini Naidu Hostel and had recently returned from her home. Kharagpur police have taken the body into custody and sent it for postmortem. The IIT Kharagpur authorities have issued a statement describing the student as “academically gifted” and known for “her intelligence, dedication, and promising future in the field of biosciences and biotechnology.”
The IITian was doing her internship and was about to complete her studies at the premier institution.
Pillai’s is the fourth death on the campus since the death of Faizan. In 2023, two IITians- K Kiran Chandra and Suriya Deepan were also found dead on the IIT campus.
On the request of CBI probe, Faizan’s mother Rehana Ahmed reacted, “As SIT has not investigated the case in the right direction, so Assam chief minister may have demanded in view of it. How will SIT reach the accused, when even after the order by the Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench that they should investigate it as a homicidal case, SIT did not follow it.”
Observers of the case believe that Mamata Banerjee may not order a CBI inquiry. Whereas Faizan’s counsels may demand for Court Monitored timely probe from the court of Judge Amrita Sinha.
