Bhubaneswar: KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta today appeared before a fact-finding committee probing the issue of the alleged suicide of a Nepali girl student and subsequent harassment of other students of the neighbouring country by the varsity authorities.

Samanta, a former Lok Sabha MP from Kandhamal, deposed before the high-level committee comprising Home Department Additional Chief Secretary Satyabrata Sahu, Women and Child Development Department Principal Secretary Shubha Sarma and Higher Education Department Commissioner-cum-Secretary Aravind Agrawal at the State Guest House in the capital city here in the evening.

The state government had earlier asked the KIIT founder to appear before the fact-finding committee and produce all documents in connection with the issue.

Apart from Samanta, seven senior officials of the KIIT Deemed University deposed before the three-member fact-finding committee, constituted by the state government to probe the issue.

A third year BTech girl student from Nepal allegedly died by suicide at KIIT some days ago. The girl student allegedly took the extreme step after she was subjected to harassment by a boy student of the institute.

The varsity authorities had asked students from Nepal to vacate the campus after they launched an agitation seeking justice for the girl students.

Taking the issue seriously, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli urged the Union as well as Odisha government to take appropriate action in this regard.