Kolkata: What the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government did yesterday, the Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government is repeating today—at least inside the courtroom, in the Faizan Ahmed murder case.
“On July 30, I met Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and requested him to help speed up my son Faizan Ahmed’s homicide case. First, he was surprised that nothing had happened in the case and that there had been no arrests so far. He told me that he will see what he can do,” said Rehana Ahmed, mother of the IIT Kharagpur student, whose suicide was declared a homicide by the division bench of Calcutta High Court.
Rehana was reacting to the Bengal government approaching the Calcutta High Court for the formation of a Medical Board to review autopsy reports.
Faizan, a resident of Tinsukia, Assam, was a 23-year-old third-year Mechanical Engineering student. The brilliant student not only secured AIR 11 in JEE Main 2020 and took admission in IIT KGP but, because of his extraordinary talent, also became a member of two centrally funded robotics research teams.
But on October 14, 2022 the partially decomposed body of Rehana’s only child was found inside the LLR Hostel. While the administration has claimed that the student committed suicide, the family believes that he was murdered. Parents approached the Calcutta High Court. The court of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha first appointed a forensic expert, Dr Ashok Gupta. Dr Gupta, reviewing pictures and videos of the body, requested the court to hold a fresh autopsy, which revealed that the IITian was murdered.
Significantly, not just IIT authorities, but the state government too—from police to lawyers—opposed it. They also moved to the division bench.
“But from the single bench to the division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmai Bhattacharyya, both benches also declared my son’s suicide a homicide and a Special Investigation Team was constituted to act on this line. I was looking forward to further investigation taking place considering it homicide,” Rehana told eNewsroom.
Faizan Ahmed Case: Bengal Government Seeks Medical Board Review Again
“But it did not happen, and the SIT did not bring forth anything in this regard,” rued Rehana.
Instead, in 2025, the Mamata government’s lawyers had also moved for the formation of a medical board to review the autopsy.
For almost a year, there was no progress in the case.
And now, the Suvendu Adhikari government’s lawyers again approached the court on September 15 to form a medical board and review the autopsies.
Faizan’s Mother Questions Delay in IIT Kharagpur Murder Probe
Rajdeep Mazumder, the Additional Advocate General, told the court that, in view of the ‘diverse medical information which has surfaced in the course of investigation’ into Faizan’s death, the state intended to constitute a medical board for a fresh opinion.
She further said, “I met Suvendu Adhikari with great hope. When the death occurred, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted and written to Mamata Banerjee to take action. So when the BJP government came into power in Bengal, I thought they would help speed up the case to find the perpetrator. But it seems no government wants to stand with the victims.”
“Now, it’s time for the judiciary to understand that there are processes to derail their own judgements. The judiciary has the responsibility to bring justice in the case, as since the murder of Faizan, several students have died in IITs. And most of them are from IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi,” she added.
Reports suggest at least 171 student deaths, including suicides and unnatural deaths, have been recorded across the IITs between 2005 and 2025. Between 2021 and 2025 alone, 53 student deaths took place.
Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi fixed September 29 as the next date of hearing.
