A third-year student of mechanical engineering was found dead in a hostel room on the IIT Kharagpur campus on October 11, 2022.
Faizan Ahmed’s parents have yet to know how the boy from Assam’s Dibrugarh died as the calendar rolls into October 11, 2023.
The first post-mortem report was inconclusive. The report on the findings of the second post-mortem, conducted after Faizan’s remains were exhumed following a Calcutta High Court order, said the death could be a case of murder.
Earlier, the police and the IIT had said the student had killed himself.
A special investigation team (SIT), set up by the high court to probe the death, has yet to submit its report.
Faizan’s mother Rehana Ahmed
Faizan’s mother Rehana Ahmed told Metro on Tuesday: “I have been failed by all — the IIT, police and even the SIT.”
Why the delay?
According to those familiar with the case, the initial sloppy investigation and an “inconclusive” first post-mortem hobbled the search for truth from the very beginning.
Faizan’s parents had on October 16, 2022, lodged a complaint with Kharagpur Town police station alleging that he had been murdered by students who were not happy with his stand against ragging.
Doctors at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, who conducted the first autopsy, allegedly did not mention the injuries on Faizan’s body, even any that could have led the police to conclude that it was a “case of suicide”.
The local police accepted the inconclusive report and the version of the IIT authorities that Faizan had been unhappy with himself.
The family moved the court in November dissatisfied with the police probe.
The second post-mortem, carried out in May 2023 at the Calcutta police morgue, suggested that the death could be a case of homicide. According to documents available from court, the report mentioned that Faizan’s death was “...due to profuse bleeding causing haemorrhagic shock and combined effect infused over the chest and over head”.
In between, eight months were lost.
Forensic report yet to arrive: The police had seized a bottle of a chemical named “Emplura” from the room where Faizan’s body was found.
Emplura is used for preservation of meat and has several other uses, too.
Lawyer Ranajit Chatterjee, who is representing Faizan’s parents at Calcutta High Court, said the chemical was probably used to reduce the smell that emanates from a rotting body.
A senior investigator said a bottle of a meat preservative found at the spot could be “circumstantial evidence”. “But to correlate it to a suspect, the chain of events has to be established,” said the officer.
On July 4, the SIT, during its first visit to the IIT campus, collected samples of bloodstains, a bucket containing the residue of a chemical and a T-shirt with many stains from the room where the body was found.
This newspaper reported on July 11 that the SIT had requested the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to revisit the campus and collect samples in the light of the second post-mortem report. A CFSL team visited the campus and collected samples. Their forensic report is pending.
Change in probe team: On August 17, a division bench of the high court changed the composition of the SIT that Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had constituted after going through the second post-mortem report.
The court did not accept the state government’s prayer opposing the decision to hand the probe to the SIT. However, it partly accepted the state’s plea to change the composition of the SIT. The new SIT has, apart from chief K. Jayaraman, additional director-general of Bengal police (headquarters), a deputy superintendent of police, an inspector and a sub-inspector.
Sources said the new officers who have been chosen for the team have yet to join and hence the probe is now stalled.
“A new team would mean the probe would begin from scratch. That is expected to consume more time,” an officer said.
Calls from this newspaper to Jayaraman went unanswered.
How did Faizan die?
This newspaper reported on February 20 that the state advocate-general, S.N. Mookherjee, representing the police, told the court that Faizan had committed suicide and that he had been depressed because of his failure to secure an internship offer.
The IIT authorities, too, said this in their report submitted in the court by the institute’s director, V.K. Tewari, in January.
From the wounds resulting from a blade cut to an overdose of drugs, the police have cited multiple theories, said Anuruddha Mitra, one of the lawyers representing Faizan’s family.
“If he had inflicted injuries on himself, the blade would have been in the room,” Mitra said.
After going through the police report, the court ordered the second post-mortem. But there is barely any progress in the investigation since.
“So the death has remained a mystery,” Faizan’s mother Rehana Ahmed told this newspaper.
Who’ll find the truth?
IIT: The family thinks the IIT authorities still owe them an explanation about how their son died. “The institute has abandoned responsibility,” the mother said.
Police: Neither the police nor the special investigation team has been able to conclude the probe, possibly for different reasons.
Response on the campus
Students made a lot of noise immediately after the death. As more details emerged, and it came to light that he might have been harassed by senior students for not being part of an “assimilation programme” on the campus, the students gradually got quiet. The IIT raised questions about the second post-mortem report in a petition filed in the high court.
Calls, text messages and an email from this newspaper to the director on the eve of Faizan’s death anniversary failed to elicit any response.
Family’s despair
“I have been failed by all — the IIT, police and even the SIT, whose probe seems to have got stuck. I am more appalled at the role of the IIT. Why are they contesting the second post-mortem report? After the death of my son, the chief minister of Assam wrote to the Bengal chief minister for a fair probe. But the police let us down. The court must do everything to expedite the probe. A year has passed,” said Faizan’s mother.