A political protest outside IIT-B on Tuesday
Ravindra and his wife had last met Wakode on Sept 13—five days before the death—when they spent the day with him on campus before returning to their home in Yavatmal the following day.
Wakode’s father Ravindra Wakode, who arrived in Mumbai, met city crime branch officers and later told reporters that he would begin a hunger strike from Wednesday if IIT-B officials named in the case were not arrested. Earlier, student representatives said they wanted questions arising from Wakode’s death to remain student-led and rooted within the IIT-B community. In a statement, the students said they neither supported nor condoned cheating “or any form of academic misconduct”. They said the protest was a collective effort to flag systemic concerns that had existed for some time and to seek “meaningful and strong institutional reforms” so that no student would have to face similar circumstances in future.
They cautioned against allowing external political organisations or competing narratives to take over concerns emerging from students’ experiences on campus.
Mumbai: Four days after second-year BTech student Sahil Wakode’s suicide on campus, IIT-B’s board of governors set up a high-level 10-member committee, which includes students and a former vigilance officer, to probe the circumstances surrounding the death, even as it asked Prof Suryanarayana Doolla, accused of abetment, to go on leave.
Panel Deadline Set for Investigation Report
A panel has been tasked with completing its investigation and submitting a report within one week. A source indicated, “Once the report is submitted and the investigation is complete, a decision will be taken.” This timeline suggests that stakeholders can expect clarity on the situation shortly after the report’s release.