Mumbai: In a late-night three-hour meeting on Sunday, IIT-Bombay director Shireesh Kedare spoke to the students who gathered in large numbers at the institute’s main gate to protest against the death by suicide of BTech student Sahil Wakode (20). In the meeting, which was recorded live by the students, the institute’s administration discussed 18 demands put forth by the protesters and signed it.
While students claimed that their demands were accepted, an institute official said that the discussions will continue and “due process will be followed”.
An open house with students is expected to be scheduled on Monday even as the institute’s Board of Governors is expected to meet.
Protests erupted on the Powai campus on Friday night after Wakode, a second-year student of energy science and engineering, ended his life hours after he was caught using a mobile phone during the institute’s mid-semester examination. He allegedly uploaded the exam paper on an AI platform for answers. This was the third case of suicide on the campus this year.
While the institute, in a statement, mentioned that no action was initiated against Wakode, many claimed that he was threatened with suspension.
Among students’ demands, suspension of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla, Sahil’s teacher and also the invigilator of the exam, was the foremost.
Sahil’s family had filed an FIR against Doolla and ‘other institute officials’, accusing them of abetment and harassment over the last three months. The students also asked for an open apology for ‘defaming’ Sahil and an open house with all the stakeholders before Sept 22. The list of demands also includes an independent investigation committee with student representatives and external members recommended by them, suspension of officials who are found guilty after the probe, and a fair compensation for the families. Students have also sought a code of conduct and sensitisation for professors.
Amid the ongoing protest, IIT-B’s faculty forum has come out in support of Doolla. In a statement issued on Sunday, the forum, while mourning the loss of life of the student and extending condolences to the family, strongly expressed their solidarity with the professor.
The forum said, “...the professor was discharging his duties in line with the institute’s Senate approved academic policies currently in force”. It added, “Prof Doolla was invigilating in the examination on Friday, when he observed that a student was indulging in an academic malpractice... As part of the institute approved procedure, he reported the incident to institute authorities for further action in the matter.”
The faculty forum added that they are distressed with the tarnishing of the reputation of their colleague who was merely discharging his duties.
Meanwhile, the institute is planning to replace the ceiling fans with wall-mounted ones in its student hostels. Sources said the plan had been under consideration for the past two months and was finalised recently. The first batch of wall-mounted fans seemed to have arrived on campus, students claimed.
Replacing the fans was among the measures the institute had assured students it would undertake in July, following the death by suicide of another student from the same hostel.
