Mother of murdered IIT Kharagpur student 'forced' back to Dibrugarh with body

Rehana Ahmed, mother of Faizan Ahmed, an IIT Kharagpur student who was murdered in October last year, has said that she is being "forcibly sent to Dibrugarh by train with her son's remains". On Friday, June 16, she appealed to the chief minister of West Bengal to intervene.

The mother, who has been waiting for a court order to carry her son's remains back home for over 20 days, has been stationed in Kolkata. She says that she arrived via a flight with her son's exhumed body for a second autopsy, and expected to return the same way as the train journey will take three days, causing further deterioration of his remains.

"I'm sitting at the [railway] station since last night, this is not right, I was expecting to take my son's remains back by flight. I waited for 23 days only for Kharagpur police to hand me a train ticket. I appeal to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to look into the matter. Despite the Assam government urging her to pay heed to my son's murder, the West Bengal government is not cooperating with me," Rehana told eNewsroom from Howrah station.

On Wednesday, June 14, the Calcutta High Court formed an investigation team led by ADG K. Jayaraman to probe the unnatural death of Faizan. The HC also directed that his body be sent back to his hometown, Dibrugarh, Assam, within three days.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, who had ordered the exhumation and second post-mortem of the dead body of Faizan in May, had said during the previous hearing on June 7, that the court is surprised about the first post-mortem doctors missing out on a vital aspect—injury marks on the back of the head.

The court-appointed experts found several loopholes in the first post-mortem conducted at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. Forensic medicine expert Ajay Gupta, engaged by the HC, also said that he was not satisfied with the findings of the first post-mortem.

Thus, the HC while passing the order for exhumation of the body said that a second post-mortem is "vital and necessary for arriving at the truth", reported The Telegraph.

The second post-mortem, conducted in May at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital revealed "antemortem injuries, homicidal in nature".

With his death initially categorised as a case of suicide, Faizan’s parents had moved the Calcutta HC in October last year, alleging that their son was "murdered" by senior students because he had resisted ragging. They sought a court-monitored probe and a special investigation team (SIT) as they were "dissatisfied with the inept and tardy investigation by the local police authorities".

"In view of serious omissions in the first post-mortem report and the misdirection of the earlier investigation, this court permits the newly appointed investigating team to, if necessary, conduct a truth serum and narco analysis test on any of the witnesses or persons they deem necessary to throw light on the incident," the court said on Wednesday.

"I have been fighting for justice for months. My first win was that the court stopped terming my son's death as 'suicide' and is investigating the murder; second, the Calcutta High Court has formed an SIT to look into the matter. I believe that the SIT will find out who killed my son and why," Rehana told eNewsroom on Friday.

The partially decomposed body of the 23-year-old, a third-year mechanical engineering student at IIT Kharagpur, was found in his room at the Lala Lajpat Roy Hall of Residence on the campus, on 14 October 2022.

He was buried at the Amolapatty Kabarsthan in Dibrugarh, his hometown, on October 16. The body was exhumed on May 23.

The new investigating team will submit a progress report to the HC on July 12.