In a matter of days, Bala’s (name changed to protect privacy) quiet world has unravelled. A meeting with President 

Droupadi Murmu. A phone call from Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. Reassuring pats on the back from Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. A parade of AIIMS Bhubaneswar doctors, whose appointments are hard to come by, offering him full attention. His worn face splashed across newspapers, TV screens, and social media feeds. Calls from concerned relatives he hadn’t spoken to for a while. Strangers arriving at his village on the border between Odisha and West Bengal.

A hundred hours have passed, yet Bala, 55, still can’t make sense of it. Why had his only daughter, a bright, determined woman of 20 years, died?

Sukanya (name changed), a B.Ed. student, had set herself ablaze on July 12 on the premises of the Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore, Odisha, according to eyewitnesses. She had been staging a protest against the college’s alleged inaction on her formal complaint of sexual harassment by the Head of the Department of Teacher Education, Samira Kumar Sahu. She succumbed to her injuries two days later while undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

Thousands of people who did not know her attended the cremation in her village, a gesture usually reserved for the rich and famous. Her death sparked widespread outrage, raising questions about the system’s efficacy to effectively address complaints of sexual harassment.

Death in a hospital

Seated on a chair in the front yard of his home, surrounded by familiar and unfamiliar faces, a day after his daughter’s cremation, Bala can’t say much. “She is gone. What is the point of speech?”

He remembers that around noon on July 12, his mobile phone rang. He was in college, where he works as a clerk. He was informed that his daughter had just set herself ablaze outside the office of the principal, Dillip Ghosh, and was being rushed to hospital. “Before wild thoughts crossed my mind about what had happened, I gathered my family and we rushed there,” he says. From the district-level hospital, Sukanya was referred to AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

Over the next few hours, many family members would travel 200 km from the village to see her. By then, the State government, worried about the political fallout, deployed an eight-member medical team to attend to the student, who had suffered 90% burns. She was put on a ventilator. The Chief Minister arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport from Delhi and proceeded directly to the hospital. State Congress president Bhakta Charan Das also visited the hospital to show his support.

“I couldn’t even bear the sight of my daughter battling for her life. Her entire body was wrapped in bandages,” Bala says.

On July 14, the President delivered the convocation speech at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, where the fifth batch of students was graduating. However, the conversation was more about the allegation of sexual harassment and the critical condition of the woman than the institute’s journey.

After concluding her speech, the President requested to visit the Burn Centre at the hospital. She was accompanied by Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, the CM, and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Hours after the President’s departure, the hospital issued a bulletin announcing the student’s death.

Complaints and answers

According to her family, Sukanya was a hard-working student and secured admission in the college in 2023-24 based on her Class 12 marks. “My sister was multi-talented. She had taken training in martial arts to become a master trainer in self-defence in college. She was designated as an Aapda Mitra (disaster response volunteer as part of a government programme) and even acted on stage,” says her brother.

According to the family, Sukanya was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and participated in its activities since her higher secondary school days.

On June 30, supported by ABVP members, she filed a complaint at the Sahadevkhunta police station alleging sexual harassment by Sahu. The police, along with her brother and ABVP members, then met Ghosh. She also approached local mediapersons and said she had been harassed.

The details of the meeting with Ghosh were documented in the police station diary, a record of all complaints before an FIR is registered. According to the police, they did not proceed with lodging an FIR as the principal had assured them that action would be taken within five days.

The following day, Sukanya wrote a formal complaint to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), a body that every organisation in India is mandated to have by law. She told mediapersons that she had submitted the complaint to the principal on July 1.

As per the complaint, she had met Sahu on a lawn in the college six months earlier and explained her academic struggles. He allegedly offered to help, but asked for a “favour” in return. Unsettled by the word, she asked what it meant. The teacher had, as per the complaint, said she was not a child and old enough to understand it.

Sukanya accused the teacher of sexual harassment and mental torture, demanding action. She said he had once threatened to ruin her academic career if she didn’t comply with his demands.

On the same day, she spoke to the media, detailing her allegations. She also took to X, tagging the CM, the Union Education Minister, the State Higher Education Minister, and the MP, MLA, and District Magistrate of Balasore, to bring attention to her allegations.

According to Subhra Sambit Nayak, an ABVP member, Sukanya’s name was not on the list of students eligible to sit for the end-semester exam released on June 29. She had been missing classes, he says, citing different reasons: the self-defence programme she ran in college, her mother’s surgery, and the deaths of her grandparents. A member of the ICC said, on condition of anonymity, that Sukanya’s attendance did not go beyond 40%, falling short of the 75% needed to sit for the exam.

However, Nayak claims that eight other students, who did not meet the attendance cut-off, were included on the list. He says despite Ghosh offering Sukanya a chance to appear for the exam, she chose to pursue her complaint formally.

“She felt she was being singled out. Her complaint to the ICC was leaked and she had become the butt of jokes on social media,” Sukanya’s brother says.

Ghosh was suspended and a new principal appointed. The college did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Internal turmoil

Under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) (POSH) Act, 2013, and the University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015, every institution needs to constitute an ICC.

The Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College’s website listed an ICC with the mandatory teaching and non-teaching staff, but did not list a student representative and an external independent member, both essential under the guidelines.

As per a notification from the college on July 1, it had appointed a social activist as the external member and three student representatives.

The following day, the notification was revised, with the name of a student representative replaced. Over the next five working days, the committee members spoke to the woman, her father, teachers, and classmates, and submitted a report on July 9.

During this period, Sukanya, with other ABVP members, met Balasore Lok Sabha member Pratap Sarangi and sought his intervention. The MP later told mediapersons that he had spoken to the police and the principal.

“After examining numerous stakeholders, we concluded that there was a lack of conclusive evidence to suggest that the teacher had sought favours from the woman. There was no one to corroborate the allegation,” says Gopamudra Mohapatra, an independent ICC member.

One of the controversies surrounding the student’s death is the power wielded by Heads of Departments (HoDs) in autonomous colleges. Here, HoDs play a dominant role: they design courses, finalise the list of examinees, set question papers, and decide who evaluates the answer scripts.

Sukanya’s brother and Nayak say that it was because of this power that her 60 classmates signed a petition certifying Sahu’s character a day after she had filed the complaint. They then submitted the petition to Ghosh.

Minati Sethi, a teacher in the English Department and member of the ICC, says, “The committee had suggested changing the HoD and making the post rotational, but that was not accepted by all. The accused teacher remained in his place.”

Sukanya’s classmates also point out that Sahu would punish students for disciplinary issues by making them stand outside the classroom and perform yoga poses like tadasana (standing with hands outstretched over the head). An ICC member says one of the committee’s recommendations was that Sahu reform this behaviour.

The committee itself was constituted overnight, say members. The names on the website and those part of the final committee differ. Members say they did not have any understanding of the POSH Act and received no orientation on its provisions or guidelines.

On July 14, the Higher Education Department asked all colleges to form ICCs in accordance with the POSH guidelines within 24 hours. The committees had to be functional, with provisions to display names and phone numbers on noticeboards of colleges.

Ghosh later told the media that he had revealed to Sukanya that the ICC’s findings had gone against her and that she should let the matter be or face rustication. She became enraged and set herself on fire despite his attempts to calm her down, he said.

In the aftermath

Sahu was arrested, Ghosh taken into custody, a high-level committee was formed under the Higher Education Department, and a probe by the Crime Branch was ordered. The National Commission for Women took suo motu cognisance of the case and the National Human Rights Commission sought a response from the State government. The Odisha government announced an ex gratia of ₹20 lakh for Sukanya’s family.

Both the Opposition Congress and Biju Janata Dal observed State-wide bandhs. Former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on X, “She did not lose her life solely to physical trauma, but to the indifference of a government that abandoned her in her fight. This is institutional betrayal — a planned injustice.”

Before consoling Sukanya’s father over the phone, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha accused the BJP government of pushing her to the brink. “This is not suicide; it is murder orchestrated by the system,” he asserted on X.

Outside the college, students now hold candlelight marches to mourn Sukanya’s death. Whether she meant to take her life or not is difficult to say, but it will be entered into the records as death by suicide.

In response to a recent question in the Odisha Assembly, the CM said 72 students had taken their own lives in government and private schools and colleges from 2020 to February 2025. Some of the reasons attributed for taking the step were mental pressure, harassment, and mental health struggles.

(If you are in distress, please reach out to the 24×7 helpline: KIRAN 1800-599-0019.)

satyasundar.b@thehindu.co.in

Edited by Sunalini Mathew