IIT Bombay Students Protest After Third Suicide in Seven Months

More than 400 students staged a protest inside the IIT Bombay campus after a second-year undergraduate was found dead in his hostel room, hours after he was caught using an AI platform during an examination. The death is the third student suicide on the Powai campus in seven months.

The student, Sahil Wakode, was found to have uploaded his question paper to ChatGPT to seek answers during the exam. According to the institute, no disciplinary action was initiated against him. The instructor and the Head of the Department discussed the matter with him, counselled him, and assured him that the incident would not adversely affect his academic career. He then returned to his hostel room and was found dead there later in the evening.

Protest and demands

Students who gathered on campus alleged that the authorities had threatened Wakode with a one-year suspension, which could have required him to leave the hostel and stay outside the campus. They said such action could have delayed the completion of his engineering course beyond the standard four years.

Protesters also alleged that the administration had not disclosed all details surrounding the circumstances of the death. A third-year Electrical Engineering student said the protest was about demanding accountability and transparency, noting that several such incidents had occurred during the year, with two in the last two months alone. The student said those on campus were completely in the dark about the reasons behind the deaths and called on the Dean, the Director, and the administration to provide a report assuring that the matter would be looked into and that such incidents would not recur.

Institute's response

In a statement, IIT Bombay said it was deeply saddened by the loss of a student and was extending support to the student's friends, classmates, faculty members, and others affected. The institute said the circumstances surrounding the death were being looked into.

It reiterated that no disciplinary action was initiated against the student and that he had been counselled and assured that the incident would not harm his academic career.

The two earlier deaths on the campus occurred in February, when a second-year student died by suicide in his hostel room, and in July, when a 20-year-old student died by suicide.