A BTech student's death at a Bhubaneswar university has triggered a police investigation into allegations of ragging and mental harassment by senior students.
A BTech first-year student was found dead in a private university in Bhubaneswar, police said.
The deceased, identified as Biswas Swain, a native of Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district, was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in the hostel on Saturday night.
Following his death, students staged a protest on the campus, which comes under the jurisdiction of Infocity police station, late on Saturday night. Following the intervention of Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena, the students lifted the stir.
According to preliminary reports, the incident is suspected to be a case of suicide, though the exact cause of death is yet to be ascertained.
Basant Swain, the deceased student's father, alleged that Biswas was subjected to mental torture by some seniors.
It was the university authority's duty to deal with it, he said.
"Seniors were mentally torturing my son and he was not eating at the hostel canteen out of fear. Last night, he did not mark his attendance at the hostel either," Biswas's mother alleged.
Gopal Sahu, the university's head of administration, said, "We have not received any ragging allegation from the deceased student. Police are investigating the case."
Speaking to reporters, Meena said, "On the basis of the complaint from the student's parents, we have lodged an FIR and launched an investigation into the incident."
The findings of the investigation will be intimated to the parents of the deceased and shared among the media, he said.