Death of JnU student: Probe committee visits her Cumilla residence

The five-member committee formed by Jagannath University (JnU) authority to investigate the death of the university’s Law Department student Fairuz Sadaf Abantika visited her village home in Cumilla and talked to her mother Tahmina Shabnam on Friday.

The probe committee, headed by its convenor professor Md Jakir Hossain, came to Abantika’s house in Shasangachha area of Cumilla town on Friday morning and talked to her mother for around two and a half hours.

The committee included member secretary and JnU deputy registrar Ranjan Kumar, members professor Abul Hossain, professor Mohammad Masud Billah and Johar Ahmed.

Later, the committee also went to Cumilla’s Kotwali Model police station and talked to the investigation officer of the case, filed by Abantika’s mother on charge of torturing her to death.

The committee also talked to newspersons about the progress of the investigation into the suicide of Abantika on 15 March in her Cumilla residence.

Convenor professor Jakir said, “We are carrying out an investigation. We learned a lot from talking to Abantika’s mother here. We again will go to the police, and take statements from them. Besides, we’ll take statements from several other sources.”

Abantika’s mother said, “I told everything to the probe committee that came from Dhaka. They heard my words and wrote down those.”

Abantika, a student of the 2017-18 academic year of the JnU Law Department, hanged herself to death at her Cumilla residence after accusing her classmate Amman and relieved assistant proctor Din Islam in a Facebook post around 10:00 pm on 15 March.

In the Facebook post before committing suicide, Abantika said that Amman Siddique and Din Islam would be responsible for her suicide.

Hours after death of Abantika by suicide, massive protest broke out at Jagannath University and continued till Saturday morning, demanding justice for the student.

In the face of student movement, the university authorities were compelled to relieve the assistant proctor and suspend the student to assuage the movement.

Besides, the university administration formed a four-member probe committee.

On 17 March, members of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested the teacher and student from Dhaka on Saturday night.

On 18 March, a Cumilla court placed Jagannath University’s suspended student Raihan Siddique Amman and teacher Din Islam on a two and one- day remand respectively in a case filed over the death of JnU student Fairuz Abantika.

After expiring the remand period, the Cumilla court sent them to jail and since then they have been remaining behind the bars.