IIT Bombay Professor Sent on Leave as Student Suicide Probe Widens

IIT Bombay professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who has been named in the alleged suicide case of student Sahil Wakode, has been sent on leave, sources said on Wednesday. He is also expected to appear before the police as part of the ongoing investigation.

A case has been registered against Doolla on charges of abetment and caste discrimination. On Monday, he was removed from his post as dean of Administrative Affairs after students staged protests over the death.

Sahil Wakode, 22, was a second-year B Tech student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering. He was found hanging in his hostel room on the evening of September 18, hours after he was allegedly caught using a mobile phone to access ChatGPT during an examination.

His mother, Sonali Wakode, has alleged that her son was tortured, abused and humiliated because of his caste. She said Sahil had told the family that Doolla would invoke his own upper-caste background while referring to Sahil as belonging to a lower caste, and that this had been going on for about three months. She added that when the family met Sahil in his hostel room on September 13, he spoke of being tortured and abused.

Rajkumar Pant, president of the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum, said Sahil had not approached the institute's SC/ST cell with any complaint in the recent past.

Sahil's mother also disputed the institute's initial claim that he had been caught using ChatGPT during a mid-semester exam, saying that anyone making a cheating allegation must provide evidence.

IIT Bombay had earlier said Sahil cheated in an exam using ChatGPT, but on Monday it withdrew that account. In a fresh statement, the institute apologised for its earlier communication about the circumstances surrounding his death and said the details remain subject to investigation by the appropriate authorities. It added that, given the ongoing probe, it was inappropriate to have set out or characterised the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established.

Helplines: Vandrevala Foundation for Mental Health — 9999666555 or help@vandrevalafoundation.com; TISS iCall — 022-25521111 (Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 10 pm).