Police detain activists from political organisations during a protest outside theIIT-Bombay campus on Tuesday demanding justice in the Sahil Wakode suicide case
They said the director had on Sept 20 agreed to the demand that Doolla be relieved of all responsibilities for the duration of the probe.
Mumbai: Rejecting suggestions that protesting students were defending academic misconduct, IIT-B student representatives said the agitation was aimed at raising larger concerns about institutional systems, accountability and student welfare. Any finding of responsibility, they said, must emerge from the evidence and the investigative process. “We stand with Prof Doolla as a member of our faculty community and believe that the investigation must be allowed to proceed fairly and impartially,” the statement said.
They made it clear that their demand for temporarily relieving Prof Suryanarayana Doolla as dean of administrative affairs should not be interpreted as a presumption of guilt. The students maintained that seeking Doolla’s temporary removal from an administrative position was intended to ensure that the investigation remained completely independent and was not influenced in any manner. A section of protesting students, however, held the director responsible for structural shortcomings at the institute and alleged that misinformation about Wakode was circulated before an investigation was conducted. They sought a statement from the director clarifying that their protest was not in support of cheating but against an arbitrary and unjustified exercise of power.