Cumilla Correspondent

The five-member committee formed by Jagannath University (JnU) authority to investigate the death of their student Fairuz Abontika visited her village home in Cumilla and talked to her mother Tahmina Shabnam on Friday.

The probe committee headed by its Convenor Prof Md Jakir Hossain came to Abontika’s house in Shasangachha area of Cumilla city on Friday morning and talked to her mother for around two and half hours.

The committee included member secretary and JnU deputy registrar Ranjan Kumar, members Prof Dr Abul Hossain, Prof Mohammad Masud Billah and Dr Johar Ahmed.

Later, the committee also went to Cumilla’s Kotwali Model police station and talked to the investigation officer of the case filed by Abontika's mother on charge of torturing her to death.

The committee also talked to reporters about the progress of the investigation into the suicide of Abontika on March 15 in her Cumilla residence.

Convenor Prof Jakir said, “We are carrying out investigation. We learned a lot from Abontika’s mother after coming to the house of Abontika. We again will go to police, and take statements from police. Besides, we'll take statements from several sources.”

Abontika’s mother said, “I told everything to the probe committee that came from Dhaka. They heard my words and wrote down those.”

Abontika, a student of the 2017-18 academic year of the JnU Law Department, hanged herself to death at her Cumilla residence after accusing her classmate Amman and relieved assistant proctor Din Islam in a Facebook post around 10 pm on Friday.

In the Facebook post before committing suicide, Abantika said that Amman Siddique and Din Islam would be responsible for her suicide.

Hours after death of Abontika by suicide, massive protest broke out and continued till Saturday morning, demanding justice for the student.

In the face of student movement, the university authorities were compelled to relieve the assistant proctor and suspend the student to assuage the movement.

Besides, the university administration formed a four-member probe committee.

On March 17, members of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested the teacher and student from Dhaka on Saturday night.

On March 18, a Cumilla court placed Jagannath University’s suspended student Raihan Siddique Amman and teacher Deen Islam on a two and one- day remand respectively in a case filed over the death of JnU student Fairuz Abontika.

After expiring the remand period, the Cumilla court sent them to jail and since then they have been in jail.