IIT-Bombay students protested against the suicide on Friday and Saturday
On Friday, his father tried calling him around 5 pm, assuming his exam would have ended by then, but the call went unanswered. Wakode’s parents were informed of his death around 8 pm, first by the institute and then by Powai police.
“I will not conduct the final rites of my son till the accused persons are arrested,” said Ravindra. Wakode’s mother, Sonali, said the family had visited him on the IIT-Bombay campus over the weekend. He told us he was preparing for the exam. He was not at all stressed,” said Sonali.
Wakode was their only child. As the standoff continued, senior IPS officers reached the hospital and tried to persuade the couple to claim the body, assuring them that action would be taken on their complaint. “It was a regular chat.
His parents outside Powai police station on Saturday His parents outside Powai police station on Saturday This is the third incident of suicide on the campus this year. Wakode’s parents — Ravindra, an office-bearer with a multipurpose cooperative society, and Sonali, a govt school teacher — refused to claim their son’s body from the post-mortem centre at Rajawadi Hospital for over seven hours on Saturday. They had also spoken to him for half an hour on Thursday night, when he appeared to be his usual self and showed no signs of distress.
Powai police also applied provisions of the Prevention of Atrocities Act after a specific complaint was made by the parents of the student, Sahil Wakode, that he was being harassed with “casteist remarks”. An IIT-Bombay spokesperson said that the police have registered a case and the matter is under investigation and that IIT-Bombay will cooperate fully with the authorities and requested everyone to respect the family’s privacy. “We ask that people refrain from speculation as the investigation proceeds,” the spokesperson added.
Mumbai: In possibly the first such instance, an IIT-Bombay professor was named an accused in connection with a student’s death by suicide on campus on Saturday. Late on Saturday, the case was transferred to the crime branch for investigation.