On Tuesday, the Calcutta High Court urged a special investigation team (SIT) to expedite its investigation into the demise of Faizan Ahmed, a student of IIT Kharagpur.

The single-headed bench of Justice Jay Sengupta, who issued the statement, also instructed the team not to submit its final report without prior permission from the court.

“The investigation has to be concluded at the earliest. The SIT has to file its report on March 18. The investigating agency will not submit its report without the permission of the court. The court will go through the documents of the probe,” Justice Sengupta said during the hearing.

In June 2023, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the high court formed the SIT to probe the death of Faizan. Faizan's decomposed body was discovered in a hostel room on the IIT campus in October 2022, following an examination of the second post-mortem report.

The report indicated that the manner of Faizan's death was deemed homicidal. Following this, the case has been transferred to Justice Sengupta. Faizan's parents, residing in Dibrugarh, Assam, remain unaware of the circumstances surrounding their son's demise. They have accused senior students of murdering Faizan for resisting ragging, as he was in the third year of his undergraduate program at the time of his death.

Niladri Sekhar Ghosh, one of the lawyers representing the family, stated in court on Tuesday: "The second post-mortem, conducted in May of last year, indicated that the death could potentially be classified as a homicide. The SIT should provide an update on its progress in light of this crucial information."

A member of the investigating team, present in court, later informed this newspaper: "Given the involvement of multiple agencies in the investigation, we are taking the necessary time to ensure thoroughness. We are committed to submitting our report on the date specified by the court."

The initial post-mortem, conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in October 2022, yielded inconclusive results. Following an order from Justice Mantha, the second post-mortem was carried out in Kolkata after Faizan's remains were exhumed from a burial ground in Dibrugarh. During proceedings on Tuesday, a lawyer representing the state government, on behalf of the SIT, informed the court that the report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad regarding Faizan's mobile phone would not be available until March.

Faizan's parents had claimed that both the local police and the authorities at IIT showed little interest in initiating a new investigation into their son's death.