1,000 Nepalese students returned to campus amid NHRC probe: KIIT

Amid the probe by the National Human Rights Commission and Odisha Police into the alleged suicidal death of a BTech student, KIIT University has claimed that 1,000 of the 1,100 Nepalese students, who left the campus in the wake of the February 16 unrest, have returned to the institute in Bhubaneswar.

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The private university made this claim on Friday after Odisha’s Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj informed the Assembly that the state government formed a professor committee to ensure a proper academic environment on the KIIT campus.

“As many as 1,000 Nepalese students out of 1,100 have returned to KIIT-DU to resume their academic pursuits after temporarily leaving the campus in the wake of the February 16 incident. The remaining 100 students are on their way and will be arriving soon,” the KIIT said in a statement, adding that the students’ return demonstrates the strong ties between the institute and its international student community, particularly from Nepal.

The Nepalese students were allegedly evicted from the campus by KIIT employees after they demanded justice for 20-year-old Prakriti Lamsal, who died by suicide in her hostel room on February 16.

The students allegedly were beaten up, verbally abused and even thrown out of the campus as they staged a demonstration over the Nepalese girl student’s death.