‘Suicide’ by OUAT girl student: parents allege ‘murder’

Bhubaneswar, May 22: Parents of Kumari Suchita, a student of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), who had reportedly committed suicide on November 18 last year, today sought mediapersons intervention bringing allegation that their daughter was murdered.

Parents of Kumari Suchita

Talking to the mediapersons in a press conference at Lohiya Academy here Suchita’s mother Dr Mudrika Tiwari, who was accompanied by Pradip Pradhan, State Convener of Odisha Soochna Adhikar Abhiyan (OSAA) and a lawyer, claimed, “My daughter was very brave. She could not have committed suicide, it was a case of murder.

Suchita’s father Harendra Kumar demanded a CBI probe into the matter. Suchita’s parents also accused Khandagiri police of not investigating the case properly.

“Suchita was upset about something after she returned from the Fourth International Rice Congress in Bangkok. She, however, didn’t say what was bothering her. I think something happened on that trip which disturbed her. I strongly suspect that she came to know about something illegal related to the four professors and her colleague who had accompanied her,” Dr Mudrika said.

Her parents, however, ruled out the possibility that their daughter was sexually harassed on the trip.

Suchita’s parents alleged it was a cold-blooded murder and some influential persons were behind the heinous act.

It is to be noted that Suchita, who was a fifth year M Sc student of Agronomy in OUAT, committed suicide on November 18, 2014. She was rushed to Capital Hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

Khandagiri police had then registered a U/D case (unnatural death) in this regard.

The college had also formed its own enquiry committee that later asserted it to be a case of suicide.

Police said their investigation into any possible murder angle in the case is still on.