The IIT Bombay authorities and protesting students and parents appear headed for a standoff today over the death by suicide of 22-year-old student, Sahil Ravindra Wakode.
The faculty forum has cited the institute’s prescribed procedure under which the professor reported the incident to the authorities concerned for action.
It said the student was found carrying and using an unauthorised smartphone during the examination.
The forum also expressed grief over the student’s death and sent condolences to the family of the second-year BTech student who was from Maharashtra’s Yavatmal. The protesters and the student’s family, however, have alleged Wakode was subjected to institutional harassment and caste-based discrimination on campus, due to which he died by suicide.
On Sunday night, the IIT Bombay administration met the protesting students to look into their 18 demands that includes ensuring student representation in academic committees, independent investigation into four cases of death by suicide on campus and mental health workshops for professors, among other demands. The student’s parents have filed a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, alleging discrimination.
