IIT KGP Student Death: SIT To Interrogate Students After Exams, Calcutta High Court Told

The Special Investigation Team, probing the death of a student under allegedly suspicious circumstances at IIT Kharagpur which occurred in October 2022, has informed the Calcutta High Court that one of the reasons why the investigation is still pending is that they are yet to interrogate the students of the Institute.Before a single-bench of Justice Jay Sengupta, the Investigating agency revealed that IIT Authorities had earlier requested the agency not to interrogate the students till November 25, due to ongoing examinations.Counsel for Petitioners, the deceased student's family, submitted that the investigation into the offences was not being done in a proper manner. Petitioner's counsel argued that “professional help was sought to commit the crime” and that even so, "the investigating agency had not been able to name any accused in the case."Upon hearing the submissions, the Court observed that a proper report on the progress of the investigation needed to be filed by the investigation team after they had taken over the investigation as SIT from 13th September.It was further held that since the SIT had acceded to the request of the IIT authorities to interrogate students after a particular date, the IIT authorities would be expected to exercise patience in allowing the investigating agency to delve into the matter further.Ideally, it should not be an adversarial litigation for the IIT authorities. After all, one of their students had died, the Bench observed.Earlier, the matter was being heard by a bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha who took exception to the instances of ragging taking place at the ‘premier institute’ and directed the Director of the Institute to take stringent and stern measures against the same. Subsequently, the matter had been assigned to the Bench of Justice Jay SenguptaThe matter had also travelled up to the Division bench presided over by the Chief Justice, which refused to hand over the investigation to a central agency, but instead partly allowed the appeal by setting aside the direction for the appointment of homicide detectives in the matter, but instead directed for the appointment of “young and energetic officers for an impartial investigation.”Matter has been kept for further hearing on 18th December 2023. Case: Salim Ahmed & Anr. Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.Case No: WPA 23497 of 2022Click here to read/download order

IIT KGP Student Death: SIT To Interrogate Students After Exams, Calcutta High Court Told

Srinjoy Das

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