NEW DELHI: The very fact-finding committee constituted by the College Grants Fee (UGC) has held KIIT Deemed to be College, Bhubaneswar, chargeable for the suicide of two college students earlier this 12 months, stating that “unlawful and illegal exercise by the college” led to one of many deaths and that the administration’s actions “quantity to prison legal responsibility.“Together with these findings, the committee has issued a set of sturdy suggestions, based mostly on which the fee is considering a freeze on the college’s growth and departmental motion towards erring officers, amongst others. The UGC committee, chaired by Professor Nageshwar Rao, submitted its report on Might 20, 2025, after campus visits, stakeholder interactions, and detailed evaluation.The report cited the college’s failure to behave lawfully on sexual harassment complaints, insufficient hostel services, extreme pupil consumption, and use of brute power on college students as key failings contributing to the incidents.The committee’s observations and findings embrace severe lapses in infrastructure and governance. It discovered that hostel services have been “substandard” with “three college students put in a small room” and feminine worldwide college students accommodated with out cultural concerns. It additionally famous that complaints of sexual harassment have been ignored or illegally compromised, that the administration forcibly eliminated Nepalese college students with out assist, and that safety personnel used bodily aggression towards college students. The college, it stated, prioritised its “fame of college over rules, legislation of land and worldwide relations of the nation.”Observing that members of the interior complaints committee (ICC) and senior administrative personnel of the college “are responsible for prison punishment as per legislation”, the report said, “… college’s inside complaints committee (ICC) did not take lawful motion in reported sexual harassment instances. There was no transparency that protocols for investigation have been adopted. The lady had made complaints to the administration twice a lot earlier than this tragic incident. In each the complaints, they determined to go for unlawful compromise… The college has the ability to punish the boy even when the primary criticism was lodged. As an alternative of punishment, they favoured the boy by pushing pressured unlawful compromise with the lady. In a while, this has led to suicide. This suicide case may have been averted.”On Feb 16, Prakriti Lamsal, a third-year BTech pupil from Nepal, was discovered useless in her hostel room. The report additionally referred to as for departmental motion towards ICC members who acted in violation of guidelines. “Had KIIT College taken motion to resolve the reported harassment case as per legislation within the first case, the tragedy may have been averted,” the report said.On Might 2, one other Nepalese undergraduate pupil was discovered useless in her hostel room at KIIT.