Faizan Ahmed murder case moves at a snail’s pace, another student dies at IIT Kharagpur
Amidst a prolonged investigation into IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed's murder, concerns of accused fleeing arise. Another campus death compounds worries. High Court demands progress report
Kolkata: The murder case of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed has been progressing at snail’s pace. The Bengal government’s representative did not appear for the third consecutive time in the court. Additionally, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to further investigate the murder of the third-year mechanical engineering student added its members just five days ago on October 13. Meanwhile, another death was reported at IIT Kharagpur on Wednesday.
Last year, on October 11, the partially decomposed body of Faizan Ahmed was discovered in an IIT Kharagpur hostel. Both the Kharagpur police and IIT authorities claimed that the 23-year-old student, who was also a member of two robotics research teams, had committed suicide. However, his parents disagreed and filed a case with the Calcutta High Court. Initially, a single bench declared it a homicide and constituted an SIT for further investigation. Later, the division bench upheld the single bench’s decision.
Today, an officer submitted an envelope to Judge Jay Sengupta’s court, informing that the SIT, led by senior IPS officer K Jayaraman, was formed on October 13. The court did not disclose the details of who else was included in the SIT. The court scheduled the next hearing for November 20 and requested the SIT representative to submit a progress report by that date.
“We have informed the court that the single bench formed the SIT in June, and the division bench did not disband it in its August 16 order. They only suggested the head assemble their team. However, there has been no progress in the investigation,” Faizan’s lawyer, Aniruddha Mitra told eNewsroom,
Ranjit Chatterjee, another lawyer for Faizan’s case, informed Justice Jay Sengupta that the delays could allow the accused to leave India after completing their studies, thereby, making it difficult to apprehend them.
IIT-KGP’s lawyer, Anindya Mitra, requested that the envelope related to the investigation not be made public. Throughout the hearings at the high court, IIT’s lawyers have been consistently opposing the case.
Notably, another death occurred on Wednesday at IIT Kharagpur when the body of fourth-year Electrical Engineering student Kiran Chandra was found in a hostel. Kiran was a resident of Telangana. Similar to Faizan’s case, both Kharagpur police and IIT authorities have asserted that it is a suicide.
