Mumbai, Sep 26 A week after Sahil Wakode’s alleged suicide, students of IIT Bombay held a candlelight march on Friday night demanding reconstitution of the inquiry committee probing his death, alleging that some members of the existing panel had expressed support for accused Prof Suryanarayana Doolla.
The board of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay had constituted a 10-member committee to probe the circumstances surrounding Wakode’s alleged suicide earlier this week.
Doolla, a faculty member named in the police FIR alleging caste discrimination and abetment to suicide, has already been sent on leave to facilitate an impartial probe.
The protest march was taken out from the Justice Corner at the main gate to Hostel 4 to mark one week since Wakode’s death in his hostel room on September 18.
The protesting students demanded that the committee to be reconstituted with no current IIT Bombay employees or students as its members.
They also sought the inclusion of at least two of four prominent personalities — former Planning Commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar, journalist P Sainath, activist Ram Puniyani and academic Sukhadeo Thorat — in the new panel.
Prof Doolla should be relieved of all his responsibilities pending completion of the criminal investigation, the students said, and also demanded the resignation of IIT Bombay Director Shireesh Kedare.
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch is probing the alleged abetment to suicide case.
Wakode (22) was found hanging in his hostel room on the evening of September 18, hours after being caught while allegedly using his mobile phone to access ChatGPT during a mid-semester examination.
(PTI News)
