Odisha: Five Varsity Officials Detained In Student Murder Case

Bhubaneswar: The probe into the murder of a Class IX tribal student at a private university in Bhubaneswar widened on Wednesday, with police detaining five officials of the institution for questioning over the alleged suppression of facts surrounding the incident.

Police on Wednesday detained three additional employees of the university and brought them to the Nandankanan Police Station for interrogation, taking the total number of staff members questioned so far to five. Two other employees had earlier been detained by the Infocity Police as part of the ongoing investigation.

Senior police officials said the questioning focused on reconstructing the sequence of events leading to the student’s death and examining the role of university authorities in allegedly misrepresenting the circumstances of the incident. While no formal arrests of staff members have been made so far, police said the detentions are aimed at gathering corroborative evidence and identifying lapses, if any, in institutional response.

Earlier in the day, the Twin City Commissionerate Police confirmed that the student was murdered, contradicting the university’s initial claim that the boy had died after slipping inside a hostel bathroom. Investigators said the student was assaulted and strangulated inside a hostel washroom following a dispute.

So far, three students have been detained in connection with the murder. Police said preliminary findings clearly point to homicidal violence rather than an accidental fall. The case is being investigated by the Infocity Police Station on the basis of a Zero FIR, and further action will be taken as the probe progresses.