A shocking investigation into the death of a Class 9 student at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneswar has revealed a brutal murder followed by a high-level institutional cover-up.
The victim, a 14-year-old tribal boy from Keonjhar district, was found dead on the night of December 11, 2025. While the institute initially informed the parents that their son had died of a “cardiac arrest” or a “fall in the bathroom,” Bhubaneswar Police Commissioner S.
Dev Datta Singh revealed on December 17 that the boy was actually strangled to death. The investigation uncovered that the victim was assaulted and throttled by three fellow students—members of a self-styled “Joker’s Gang”—following a trivial scuffle over a plastic bucket in the hostel washroom. The three minors have since been detained and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.
The case has drawn nationwide outrage due to the systemic attempt by school officials to suppress the crime. Police have arrested eight high-ranking KISS officials, including the Additional CEO Pramod Patra, teachers, and hostel staff, for their alleged roles in intimidating minor witnesses, destroying evidence, and misleading the family.
According to the police, the institute failed to inform local authorities and instead manipulated the boy’s father into taking the body back to his village without a post-mortem. The cover-up reportedly extended to the affiliated Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital,
where doctors allegedly issued a death certificate citing heart failure without conducting an autopsy. It was only when the suspicious family noticed ligature marks on the boy’s neck and staged a protest in Keonjhar that a “Zero FIR” was filed and a subsequent post-mortem confirmed death by strangulation.
This incident has cast a dark shadow over the Kalinga group of institutions, founded by Achyuta Samanta, which had already been under scrutiny earlier in 2025 following the suicide of a Nepalese student and allegations of student mistreatment.
The state government is now facing immense pressure to ensure accountability, as critics point to a “pattern of negligence” and “in-house justice” systems used to protect the institute’s reputation. Police are currently investigating the hospital’s role in the cover-up and have sealed the crime scene at the hostel.
The arrests of senior management mark a significant step in breaking the silence surrounding the “Joker’s Gang” bullying culture that had reportedly plagued the hostel for months.
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