Mumbai: The parents of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode who died by suicide on Sept 18 have sought a forensic analysis of handwriting in the apology letter given by their son, saying he had not written it.
Along with the update on the case so far and their concerns, the parents have alleged that one of the pages from Sahil’s answer sheet from the examination held on Sept 18 was missing. The family’s lawyer Siddharth Ingle said, “The printed answer sheet had only five questions and the page with question number 3 was missing from the document.
His father, Ravindra Wakode, in a media interaction, said “the apology letter was not written by his son”. The institute had said that Sahil was caught copying in his exam. Under the Atrocities Act, the parents were recently allowed to access the documents seized in Sahil’s case by the crime branch. Subsequent to that, he had given a written apology. They claimed that a missing page from a document directly related to the alleged exam malpractice in the case is a very serious matter and should be brought on record. They wrote that if the report is not finalised, the committee’s proceedings, preliminary findings and recommendations concerning Sahil’s death should be shared with them, as they are not an ‘unrelated third party’ and the disclosure is essential for the family to understand if all relevant aspects have been examined.
In another development, the parents, along with a delegation of Congress leaders led by Varsha Gaikwad, met the state’s director general of police (DGP) on Monday and submitted their representation. On Saturday, the parents also wrote a letter to IIT Bombay’s Board of Governors (BoG), through their advocate, seeking a copy of the interim report of the institute’s internal committee in the matter.