NIT Student Death: Drug kingpin, associate held

NEW DELHI: A drug kingpin and his associate have been arrested in connection with the death of a student of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here, police said on Wednesday. The first-year M.Tech student died on October 23 due to suspected drug overdose.

The main accused, Ravi Chopra, was arrested late Tuesday night and booked under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for culpable homicide besides sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after 1.60 gram of 'chitta', a form of adulterated heroin, was recovered from his possession, Superintendent of Police Akriti Sharma said.

The SP said Chopra is the kingpin of drugs in Hamirpur and added that this is the seventh case registered against him under the NDPS Act. Chopra's associate Ankush Sharma was also nabbed from Chandigarh. He is alleged to be involved in several drug-related deals, police said.

Police had earlier arrested seven people, comprising five NIT Hamirpur students, a BEd student and one other person, in connection with the student's death and for possessing drugs. The student's body was found inside his hostel room on October 23 and investigations pointed out that drug overdose led to his death following which police had conducted searches at several places.

Police said the investigations revealed that Rajat Sharma, one of the seven accused arrested earlier in connection with the death case, had links with Chopra and both had done dealings worth lakhs of rupees in the past 20 days. Meanwhile, the NIT management has banned two girl students from living in the hostels here as they were found drunk while entering the institute two days ago.

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There are reports that the Union government has directed the NIT Hamirpur director to submit a detailed report about drug-related activities and the student's death in the institution recently.

At the 14th convocation of the NIT held recently, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur had taken strong exception to drug-related activities in the institution and blasted the management for its failure to deal with the situation firmly. NIT Hamirpur Registrar Archana Santosh Nanoty said six wardens of the institute had been shifted and new wardens were appointed.

Nanoty said work was on to repair the walls of the institution through which the students used to enter or leave the campus in an unauthorised manner during their off hours. She added that no one would be allowed to enter or leave the institution after 9 pm and the security personnel would take strong action against the defaulters.