Two more held on charges of instigating Odisha college student to commit self-immolation

Two men were arrested in Odisha's Balasore district for allegedly instigating a 20-year-old college student to commit self-immolation, police said on Monday.

The Crime Branch of the state police apprehended the two late on Sunday in connection with the death of the woman last month, a senior officer said.

The woman student of the Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore had set herself on fire as her complaint of sexual harassment was “not validated” by an internal enquiry committee of the institute, the police had said.

"The arrested persons are Jyoti Prakash Biswal, a student of the college, who had sustained burn injuries in an attempt to save the woman, and Subhra Sambait Nayak, the state joint secretary of a student organisation," the officer said.

Biswal was recently discharged from the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack after recovering from burn injuries.

They were picked up from their residences late on Sunday, the officer said.

Earlier, Samira Kumar Sahoo, an assistant professor of the college, and ex-principal of the institute, Dillip Ghose, were arrested on charges of abetment of suicide.

The police said that Biswal and Nayak, the two arrested persons, were produced before the residential office of the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), Balasore, on Sunday night, and were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days after their bail petitions were rejected.

The woman student had on July 12 poured petrol on her body and set herself on fire for allegedly being denied justice in a sexual harassment case against the head of the department (HoD) of Integrated BEd.

She sustained 95 per cent burn injuries and died on the night of July 14 while undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, the police had said.