People of Bargarh’s Padmapur observed a bandh on Monday to protest against the mysterious death of a woman lecturer of Jaydev Institute of Science and Technology (JIST) recently. The lecturer, Mamtanjali Sarangi, had allegedly hanged herself from her hostel room.

While the college management claimed that she was found hanging in her hostel room, her father alleged that it was a pre-planned murder. The husband of the institution’s head was arrested. He is Krushna Mohan Panda of Padmapur, who works as a lecturer in a local college.

Mamtanjali Sarangi, daughter of Bharat Ram Sarangi of Titilagarh, was working in the institution since 2009. She had left the institution in 2010 because of alleged harassment. She returned after Panda assured to look into her case.

People of the institution had brought her body to the hospital without informing the police and magistrate when they found her hanging from the ceiling fan. “We want a CBI probe into the incident because we apprehend that the matter will be hushed by police as the accused is a relative of a local BJD leader,” an activist said.