The high court on Tuesday asked a special investigation team (SIT) to speed up its probe into the death of IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed.
Justice Jay Sengupta, who made the remarks, also asked the team not to file its final report without the court’s permission.
“The investigation has to be concluded at the earliest. The SIT has to file its report on March 18. The investigating agency will not submit its report without the permission of the court. The court will go through the documents of the probe,” Justice Sengupta said during the hearing.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the high court had in June 2023 constituted the SIT to investigate the death of Faizan, whose decomposed body was found in a hostel room on the IIT campus in October 2022, after going through the report of the second post-mortem.
The report suggested that the manner of death was homicidal in nature.
The case has since been assigned to Justice Sengupta.
Faizan’s parents, who live in Assam’s Dibrugarh, have yet to know how the boy died. They have alleged that their son, who was in third year of the undergraduate programme when he died, had been murdered by senior students for resisting ragging.
Niladri Sekhar Ghosh, one of the lawyers representing the family, submitted in the court on Tuesday: “The second post-mortem, which was conducted in May last year, suggested that the death could be a case of homicide. The SIT should submit its progress report in the light of this fact.”
A member of the investigating team who was present in the court later told this newspaper: “As different agencies are involved in the process, we are taking time to complete the probe. We will submit our report on the day fixed by the court.”
The first post-mortem, which was conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in October 2022, was inconclusive.
The second post-mortem was performed in Kolkata, following an order from Justice Mantha, after the youth’s remains were exhumed from a burial ground in Dibrugarh.
On Tuesday, a lawyer for the state government submitted in the court on behalf of the SIT that the report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, in Hyderabad, on Faizan’s mobile phone could not be submitted before March.
Faizan’s parents had alleged that neither the local police nor the IIT authorities were keen on a fresh probe into the death.