Odisha Police have arrested two more people in connection with the self-immolation of a 20-year-old female student on the campus of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore last month.
The duo were arrested by the Crime Branch at their residence on Sunday night on charges of instigating the girl to set herself ablaze. They were produced before the residential office of the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), Balasore, and were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days after their bail petitions were rejected.
"The arrested persons are Jyoti Prakash Biswal, a student of the college, who had sustained burn injuries in an attempt to save the woman, and Subhra Sambait Nayak, the state joint secretary of a student organisation," a senior police officer told PTI.
Biswal had sustained burn injuries when he tried to rescue the victim. He was admitted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack and was apprehended after being discharged, police said.
According to some reports, Nayak is the state joint secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP.
With the fresh arrests, the total number of people held in the case has gone up to four. Police had earlier arrested Samira Kumar Sahoo, an assistant professor of the college, and ex-principal of the institute, Dillip Ghose.
The victim, a second year BEd student, set herself on fire after pouring petrol on her body on July 12, alleging that her complaint of sexual harassment against the Head of the Department was not validated by an internal enquiry committee of the institute.
She sustained 95 per cent burn injuries and died on July 14 while undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar.