Police are investigating the death of a Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) student during an orientation program in Lembang, North Bandung.

Dwiyanto Wisnu Nugroho, 22, died early Sunday during an orientation program by the university's School of Geodesy. He was one of 80 students participating in the program, having been accepted at the institute after an entrance exam in 2007.

Witnesses questioned by the police said the victim fell after climbing Gunung Batu valley in Pagerwangi at 2 a.m.

On Monday, representatives from the rector's office said the orientation program, held outside the campus, was illegal because a similar program had already been banned for instances of violence.

Cimahi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Purwolelono said his officers had questioned five people believed to be involved in the case. They include head of the Geodesy Students Association Gunawan Raditya and member of the Geodesy School's acceptance committee Putu Pria Dharma.

Most of the students from the association declined to speak about Wisnu's death. ITB representatives also turned down requests to explain the chronology of the death, saying that reporters wait for a legal announcement from ITB to be issued on Tuesday.

Purwolelono said the police had received information about Wisnu's death from residents of Pagerwangi on Sunday afternoon.

"We moved as soon as we received information of the death," said Purwolelono, who immediately began questioning a number of students and lecturers at the institute on Monday.

Officers also went to Borromeus Hospital, where Wisnu's body was taken, only to find it had already been taken by his family to his home in Bekasi, West Java.

Purwolelono said the hospital doctors had suggested that an autopsy be done, but the family members had refused because they did not want to see the body mutilated.

The only letter for the orientation program was issued by Gunawan and Putu, with the approval of Wedyanto Kuntjoro, head of the Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering program.

The letter asked for a recommendation from the Pasirwangi village head in Lembang, where the program was held from Feb. 7 to 8, Purwolelono said.

ITB spokesman Budi Mulyadi said the student disciplinary commission was still investigating the possibility that the committee had violated disciplinary regulations.

"Any violation of such a regulation means expulsion," he said, adding that ITB had already prohibited such student orientation programs through Rector's Decision No. 082/2007 dated April 26, 2007.

A similar death was recorded at ITB in January 1996, when Zaki Tiffany Lazuardian, a student at the physics school, reportedly died after marching for five days and being submerged in water up to his abdomen.

An identical incident took place again the same year when a member of ITB's Student Regiment, Dody Hartanto, died after a long walk march in Subang, West Java. That case was never exposed.

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