Kolkata: Rehana Ahmed, the mother of murdered Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed, has finally secured an appointment with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. She hopes the meeting will help revive an investigation that has remained stalled for years despite repeated court interventions.
Faizan, the only child of Rehana and Salim Ahmed, was an exceptionally bright student who secured All India Rank (AIR) 11 in the IIT-JEE in 2020. Because of repeated COVID-19 lockdowns, classes remained online for months, and he joined the IIT Kharagpur campus only in December 2021.
Less than nine months later, on October 14, 2022, the partially decomposed body of the 23-year-old student was found in his hostel room. According to the postmortem report, the third year mechanical engineering student is believed to have been killed around October 11.
From the outset, however, IIT Kharagpur authorities and the West Midnapore Police maintained that Faizan had died by suicide. The first autopsy also pointed in that direction. Unconvinced, his parents approached the Calcutta High Court.
The court of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha appointed former forensic expert Dr Ajay Gupta, who, after examining photographs and videos of the body, suspected haemorrhage and urged the court to order a second postmortem in Kolkata.
Faizan’s body, which had already been buried in Assam after being flown home, was exhumed and brought to Kolkata for a fresh autopsy. Based on the findings, the Justice Matha court ruled that Faizan Ahmed’s death was a homicide and constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.
IIT Kharagpur challenged the order before a division bench, but the bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmai Bhattacharyya, upheld the single bench’s decision, allowing the SIT investigation to continue. Subsequently, the forensic expert’s preliminary report also indicated the presence of a gunshot wound on Faizan’s body.
Despite High Court Orders, Investigation Remains Stalled
Yet, more than 18 months after the High Court declared Faizan’s death a homicide and ordered an SIT probe, the investigation has made little progress. The High Court has repeatedly pulled up the SIT for its slow pace.
Between 2023 and 2025, Rehana Ahmed wrote several letters to the West Bengal Minority Commission and repeatedly appealed to then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking a meeting and intervention to expedite the investigation.
“I did everything possible to meet Mamata Banerjee, but neither she met us nor did the Bengal Police or the public prosecutor ever appear to support our case,” Rehana said.
On Thursday, as this report goes to publication, Rehana Ahmed is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. After years of waiting for justice, she hopes the meeting will finally breathe life into an investigation that has long appeared to be at a standstill.
Last week, eNewsroom reported that Rehana Ahmed had travelled to Kolkata in the hope of securing a meeting with the new Chief Minister. The report documented the anguish of a mother who, after years of fighting for justice for her only son, feared that the investigation into Faizan Ahmed’s death had reached a dead end. Her meeting with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday marks a significant development in the case and follows eNewsroom‘s report on her renewed appeal for justice.
At a time when student protests across India have reignited the demand for accountability and safer campuses, the Chief Minister’s action on Rehana Ahmed’s appeal could prove to be another significant development in the pursuit of justice for Faizan Ahmed.
