The family of the IIT Kharagpur student from Assam who was recently found dead in his hostel room have alleged they are yet to get a report of the post-mortem.
A lawyer hired by Faizan Ahmed’s family said they were surprised at the delay, especially because the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, had written to Mamata Banerjee on October 20 requesting a “thorough investigation” into the circumstances surrounding the death.
A senior official of the IIT said the third-year student of mechanical engineering had died on October 11. His partially decomposed body was found in his room at the Lala Lajpat Rai Hall of Residence on October 14.
Aniruddha Mitra, the lawyer, said if the report was not shared with them at the earliest, they would file a petition at Calcutta High Court, expressing their dissatisfaction with the probe by the Kharagpur police.
“We are surprised that the police have not yet shared the findings of the post-mortem with the student’s family. The chief minister of Assam has written to his counterpart in Bengal about the case. If we are not given the report at the earliest, we will file a petition in the high court expressing our dissatisfaction with the probe by the Kharagpur police,” Mitra told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
An officer of Kharagpur Town police station said the post-mortem report had not yet arrived from the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital.
An official of the government-run medical college said: “The report is ready. The police are supposed to collect it.”
The police have registered an FIR under IPC Section 302 (punishment for murder). When asked whether they thought it was a case of murder, the police officer said: “We won’t be able to say anything until we get the post-mortem report. We have spoken to some students on the campus. Let the probe be over.”
Salma Ahmed, Faizan’s aunt, told this newspaper over the phone from Assam: “We do not believe that he committed suicide. But I have to ask why the hostel warden did not do what was expected of him. Faizan missed some papers in the mid-semester exam, which was held till September 30. Why did the faculty advisor not notice that and alert the family?”
Salma said they had sought to know during their interaction with the IIT Kharagpur administration why the warden did not raise the alarm even after Faizan did not come out of his room for three days.
She said they had not received any response from the IIT authorities yet. Dhrubojyoti Sen resigned as the IIT’s dean of students’ affairs last week following an outrage among students over Faizan’s death.
Amit Patra, deputy director of the IIT, issued a statement on Thursday night, tendering “unconditional apologies” and taking “responsibility for the lapses”.
He said on Tuesday: “The police probe is on and we are awaiting that. We are open to all types of probes — CBI or CID or judicial. There may be some loopholes in our system. We will rectify once they come to light.”
He said the institute was internally investigating the incident. “We want the truth to come out. If there are any flaws at the individual or procedural level, corrective steps will be taken,” he said.
