Bhubaneswar, 15 July

The Odisha college student who set herself ablaze following alleged sexual harassment by a professor died at AIIMS here, the hospital said.

The second-year Integrated BEd student of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, Balasore, died on Monday night, after fighting for her life for three days.

She took the extreme step on Saturday over alleged inaction against the professor and suffered 95 per cent burns.

Expressing grief over the student's death, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said all culprits in the case will face the strictest punishment under the law.

The woman was first admitted to the Balasore districthospital and then shifted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar for advanced treatment. She was undergoing treatment in the ICU, Department of Burn Centre, according to officials.

"The patient was resuscitated with IV fluids, IV antibiotics, intubated and put on mechanical ventilation. Despite adequate resuscitation and all possible supportive management, including renal replacement therapy at the Burns ICU, she could not be revived and was declared clinically dead at 11.46 pm on July 14," the Department of Burn Centre said in a statement.

President Droupadi Murmu, who was at AIIMS Bhubaneswar to attend its 5th convocation ceremony, paid an unscheduled visit to the burn and plastic surgery department on Monday evening and enquired about the student's condition.

After conducting the post-mortem at AIIMS on Monday night, the body of the student was sent to her native village Palasia in Balasore district amid protest by members of opposition BJD and Congress at the hospital premises.

As soon as the hospital announced the death of the student, the BJD and Congress leaders and activists staged a protest inside the AIIMS campus late on Monday night. Police forcefully evicted the opposition members to clear the road for movement of the vehicle carrying the body.