Bhubaneswar/Balasore (Odisha), Jul 17 (PTI) The Crime Branch of Odisha Police on Thursday recorded the statement of a person who suffered burn injuries while trying to save a 20-year-old student who died after immolating herself over alleged sexual harassment, official sources said.
The Crime Branch on Wednesday took over the investigation into the death of the student of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore.
Two officers of the Crime Branch visited SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack where Jyotiranjan Biswal, who was injured in his bid to save the student, is undergoing treatment, they said.
He is the lone available eyewitness who would be able to throw light on what actually happened on the college campus on July 12 when the woman set herself on fire, they said.
She died while undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday night.
While the woman student suffered 95 per cent burn injuries, Biswal suffered 15 per cent burn injuries.
The Crime Branch officials asked Jyotiprakash about the sequence of events, whether she poured petrol on her or somebody poured or supplied the inflammable to the student, the sources said.
“This question is vital as the deceased student’s mother alleged that she doubts someone else set her daughter on fire,” an official said.
The team also spoke to Biswal’s treating doctors at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Department of the hospital.
Meanwhile, a Crime Branch team, led by DSP Iman Kalyan Nayak, also visited the college in Balasore as part of the ongoing investigation into the incident.
“We have taken over the case from the Sahadevkhuna police station in Balasore. The Crime Branch is verifying the investigation conducted by the district police. We are collecting information from the ground level,” Nayak told reporters.
Earlier, Balasore Police arrested two persons — Samira Kumar Sahoo, suspended head of the education department, and Dillip Ghose, suspended principal of the college. They have been charged with abetment to suicide, sexual harassment, stalking, and insulting the modesty of a woman.
Also, the three-member high-level committee of the higher education department has issued a notice to the college principal and the members of the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) for examination on the campus on Friday. The committee had earlier interrogated the then college principal Dillip Ghose, who was subsequently arrested.
In another development, the Balasore Police have registered a case against five persons at Bhograi police station based on an allegation of cyber harassment of the victim’s family. The complaint was lodged by the brother of the deceased woman.
Her brother, in his complaint, had alleged that five persons of the locality had been mentally harassing the family members by posting objectionable remarks on the family and even against the deceased woman on social media.
“This was a mental torture for us when we are passing through the worst period after her death,” the brother wrote in the complaint.
The police have booked the five persons under Section 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), 253 (2) (making, publishing, or circulating false statements), 356 (2) (defamation) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of BNS. PTI COR AAM AAM ACD
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