How a ‘grieving’ mother fought against ‘mighty’ IIT Kharagpur
In the High Court, the parents not only have to face IIT but also the state government, which has always been claiming that Kharagpur police's investigation is fair
Kolkata: Since the dead body of Faizan Ahmed, third year Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagur was recovered inside the hostel of the premier institute, IIT authorities were in denial mode to accept that an extraordinarily talented student was murdered. They always maintained that the 23-year-old, the only child of Rehana and Salim Ahmed, a resident of Tinsukia, Assam has committed suicide. The authorities claimed that Faizan was in depression and took this drastic step. However, parents from the time of death have been claiming that their son was murdered.
When Kharagpur police and the first postmortem could not give satisfactory answers to the grieving family, the parents moved to Calcutta High Court.
A tough challenge to stand against the State and IIT
In the High Court, the parents not only have to face mighty IIT but also the state government, who has always been claiming that Kharagpur police’s investigation is fair. Here, with the help of Salim’s friend, the family got an excellent set of lawyers in Ranajit Chatterjee and Aniruddha Mitra, among others.
As the matter got heard in High Court, here also police could not ascertain the cause of death before the court of Justice Rajasekhar Manta. The court ordered a second postmortem and it was established that Faizan was murdered. Justice Mantha constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe further, replacing police. During the hearing Justice Mantha had verbally mentioned to IIT lawyers that the court will not hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court had also believed that since the IIT is a centrally funded organization, it is better to hand over the case between the local police and CBI.
Both state government and IIT reached Division Bench to stop orders
Before the division bench comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmai Bhattacharyya state government petitioned against SIT formation while IIT Kharagpur wanted to quash the entire case. From the State side additional advocate general (ADG) appeared and IIT placed their best lawyers to put full stop in the case.
During the hearing, lawyers from state and IIT employed various tactics to persuade the division bench in their favour. IIT lawyers in their verbal submission not only repeatedly claimed that the case has been registered by the parents for the extortion from IIT but also mentioned that Faizan’s case is not a case of ragging.
However, neither the state’s demand to replace the SIT nor the claim of IIT lawyers that it was a case of suicide, not homicide, was accepted. The only order the Division Bench gave was to set aside two officers who were under ADG K Jayaraman. The court said that the ADG, who will lead the SIT can choose his own team.
Now, after the Division Bench’s order, regardless of the eventual outcome, the Calcutta High Court has established that Faizan’s case is of a ‘homicidal’ nature and not suicide, as IIT authorities have claimed.
The order can also expedite the resolution of the 10-month-old case, leading to a quicker conclusion and enabling the discovery not only of the culprits but also the motive behind the brutal murder of one of India’s most talented young students.
Battle for justice amid ruined life
While in the same nature of the alleged ragging and murder case of Swapnadip Kundu at Jadavpur University, several protests took place across Bengal and in Kolkata. People of Nadia district, the native place of Swapnadip, marched to Jadavpur university in demand of justice. It was the pressure of the protests that the case which was initially about suicide within two days turned out to be a murder. Kolkata police took swift action in the case.
But Rehana and Salim Ahmed were fighting a lone battle for the last 10 months against the mighty team of state government as well as the IIT.
During the time of the second postmortem, the mother of Faizan had stayed in Kolkata for 21 days with the dead body.
“In the day, we go to court and meet lawyers or to the police mortuary and in the night, we pray to get justice. Rehana’s life has got completely ruined. Neither she eats well nor sleeps at night. Sometimes she remains awake the entire night and tells me that our son will return anytime,” said Salim.
The order by division bench gave big relief to grieving mother Rehana and the hopeless father that they will soon get justice.
