Nepal PM Oli sends officials to Odisha campus as students protest woman’s death

There was tension on the campus on Sunday after a third-year BTech student from Nepal was found dead in her hostel room

New Delhi: The death of a Nepali student at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Odisha triggered protests by students from the neighbouring country, with Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli despatching two officials to the campus on Monday.

The Nepali woman allegedly died by suicide after being harassed by a male student. (Representational image)

There was tension on the campus on Sunday after a third-year BTech student from Nepal was found dead in her hostel room. The 20-year-old allegedly died by suicide after being harassed by a male student, authorities said.

Dozens of Nepali students gathered on the campus on Sunday night for a protest, and they said they were subsequently evicted from KIIT.

Local police detained a male student and lodged a case against him for allegedly abetting the suicide, Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Pinak Mishra told reporters. He said police had seized the mobile phone, laptop and other gadgets of the deceased student and are conducting a scientific investigation.

Amid reports of the eviction of Nepali students from KIIT, Oli said on X that two officials from Nepal’s embassy in New Delhi had been sent to the campus to assist students.

“Our Embassy in New Delhi has dispatched two officers to counsel Nepali students affected in Odisha,” he said.

“Additionally, arrangements have been made to ensure they have the option to either remain in their hostel or return home, based on their preference.”

KIIT appealed to Nepali students on Monday to resume their classes. “The KIIT administration has taken all-out efforts to restore normalcy in the campus and hostels to resume the academic activities,” the institution said in a statement.

“An appeal is made to all our Nepali students who have or plan to leave the campus to return and resume the classes,” it said.

KIIT acknowledged there was an “unfortunate incident” on the campus on Sunday, following which “police investigated the matter and apprehended the culprit”.

Earlier, Oli said in another post on social media that Nepalese students had been “forcibly evicted from the hostel” after the death of the student. He said the Nepal government is “working on this matter through diplomatic channels and is in contact with the relevant authorities”.

Following the protest on Sunday, authorities deployed dozens of police personnel at the campus. The university initially asked Nepalese students to go home, and several students said they were put in buses and dropped at Cuttack railway station on Monday morning.

Anil Prasad Yadav, a student from Nepal, told reporters at the railway station: “We were pushed out of the hostel...We were told to pack up and leave within an hour. We have nothing with us. We don’t know how we will go.”

Rajan Gupta, another student from Nepal, said, “We were protesting for the girl. We don’t know what their intentions are but we were forcibly made to vacate the hostel.”