File pic of police bandobast outside IIT-Bombay
Mumbai: Six teachers from IIT-Bombay, in an email to the institute’s director last week, have raised concerns over the Faculty Forum’s handling of the incident involving BTech student Sahil Wakode (20), who died by suicide on Sept 18 in his hostel room, and a professor.
The first one, while extending condolences to Sahil’s family, said Doolla had acted in accordance with the institute’s Senate-approved academic policies after allegedly observing a student engaging in academic malpractice during an examination and reporting the incident to the authorities. In the letter to the director last week, the six teachers stated: “The whole handling (of the issue) raises a fundamental question about the role of a representative faculty body, when the facts of an incident remain under inquiry under state jurisdiction…This unethical use of institutional power is appalling and we condemn it.” The email argued that while faculty members’ demands for due process and protection from premature condemnation are legitimate, the same principles must apply to the student and his family, especially when his version will never be known.