CCTV shows girl buying petrol in bottle amid probe in Odisha student's death who set herself on fire over sexual harassment

Amid the investigation into the case of sexual harassment of a student in Odisha's Fakir Mohan Autonomous College, police found CCTV footage that showed a young girl, around the same age as the victim, buying petrol from a filling station. The student who set herself on fire over inaction against her professor, who allegedly asked her for sexual favours, died on July 13. The Odisha Police found the footage on Saturday (July 19) and was analysing it. It is yet to be ascertained how she got the petrol. Meanwhile, filling stations in the district have stopped giving petrol in bottles.

Rajkumar Mittal, who is leading the UGC fact-finding team, said the agency will so prepare its report in the investigation.

The UGC team has questioned the principal of the college and members of the internal complaints committee (ICC), which had mentioned in its report that there was no evidence of sexual harassment as alleged by the deceased student.

What was the incident?

A 20-year-old student of the Fakir Mohan University in India's Odisha set herself ablaze after allegedly being sexually harassed by a teacher, Samir Kumar Sahu; now she has died. The girl succumbed to her injuries a day after the President of India, Droupadi Murmu visited her at the AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday (July 14).

The girl was a second-year student of B.Ed (integrated) at the Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Balasore. She set herself ablaze on Saturday (July 12) outside the chamber of the college principal. She filed a complaint against Samir Kumar Sahu, but the Internal Complaints Committee of the institution gave a clean chit to him, who was the head of the education department.

The girl had accused Sahu of making sexual advances against her and then threatening to fail her in examinations if she did not give in to her demands. The girl was an active member of the RSS-controlled Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. She had even approached CM Majhi, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the national commission for women, as well as district police officials about her plight - but none could give her justice.

“Despite adequate resuscitation and all possible supportive management, including renal replacement therapy at Burns ICU, she could not be revived and was declared clinically dead at 11.46 p.m. on July 14,” says a bulletin of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

The chief minister of Odisha, Mohan Charan Majhi, expressed his grief via a social media post, saying, “I am deeply saddened to hear about the passing of the student from Fakir Mohan Autonomous College. Despite the government fulfilling all responsibilities and the relentless efforts of the team of specialist doctors, her life could not be saved. I pray for the departed soul to rest in peace and give strength to her family to bear this irreparable loss."