IIT-Bombay student's death sparks row; caste discrimination alleged

New Delhi, February 13

Mystery shrouds death of Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old BTech student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay – who died after a fall from the seventh floor of his hostel building in Mumbai’s Powai on Sunday.

Solanki hailed from Ahmedabad. Though the police have registered a case of accidental death, a student group on the IIT Bombay campus alleged he was driven to suicide due to discrimination against the Scheduled Castes on the campus.

The deceased had enrolled three months ago and his first semester exams concluded on Saturday.

Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), on Monday, tweeted, “We mourn the loss of an 18-year old dalit student, Darshan Solanki, who joined IIT Bombay three months back for his BTech. We must understand that this is not an individualised issue, but an institutional murder. Despite our complaints, the institute did not care to make the space inclusive and safe for dalit bahujan adivasi students. First-year students face the most harassment in terms of anti-reservation sentiments and taunts of non-deserving and non-meritorious. There is a lack of representation of faculty and counsellors from the marginalised.”

The group further said in September 2014, Aniket Ambhore, a 22-year-old fourth-year B.Tech student of IIT Bombay, had died after falling from a hostel building on the campus at IIT Bombay. “Aniket had taken admission in IIT Bombay from the SC category quota and had faced derogatory comments in the institute about his academic ability. It looked like a case of suicide, but one which had resulted out of an ‘atmosphere of discrimination on the IIT Bombay campus which severely affects the mental state and motivation of the reserved category students,” the group tweeted.

IIT Bombay Director Subhasis Chaudhuri in a message to students regretted the loss of the student and said, “Powai police is investigating the matter. Parents of the student have been informed and are on their way.”

The Government had in 2021 informed Parliament that 122 students of IITs, IIMs, central universities and other centrally funded higher educational institutions committed suicide between 2014-2021.

Of the 122 students who committed suicide, 24 belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC), 41 to Other Backward Classes (OBC), and three to Scheduled Tribe (ST). Three such students were from the Minority category.