Abantika's death: JnU probe committee visits her mother in Cumilla

The five-member committee formed by Jagannath University (JnU) authorities to investigate the death of law department student Fairuz Abontika visited her mother Tahmina Shabnam in their Cumilla residence.

Led by Professor Md Jakir Hossain, the committee visited to Abantika's village house in Bagichagaon area of Cumilla on Friday morning and talked to her mother for over two hours.

"We have come to visit to gather information for our investigation," Professor Jakir told reporters on the day in Cumilla.

However, he could not provide any details as to when the probe report will be submitted.

" 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," he added.

Also speaking to reportes, Abantika's mother Tahmina said, "If the university administration was as sincere from the start as they are now, my daughter would still be alive."

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.

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.

Later, in the face of protest from JnU students, the university authorities relieved the assistant proctor and suspended the student.

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

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

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