‘IIT-B student’s roommates reduced talking after knowing about rank’

Mumbai: A week after the interim report by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay committee ruled out caste discrimination in Dalit student Darshan Solanki’s death by suicide death, an alumnus of the institute has claimed that some of the 18-year-old’s wingmates had “reduced” talking to him after they found out about each other’s ranks, following which Solanki’s had enquired about the procedure to change his hostel room allocation.

“The senior student submitted his written statement to the 12-member panel which was appointed to investigate Solanki’s death, but not a single line mentioned this written statement,” said a student representative from the institute.

According to sources, the senior, in his statement, said, “I was submitting the statement based on a conversation with Solanki. I met Solanki twice in November, and during the second meeting, he spoke about being alienated by his wingmates. He told me that his wing mate had reduced talking to him after knowing each other’s rank, and some of them also do not discuss studies.”

The senior had explained to Solanki that there was no procedure to change hostel rooms and asked him to look to make other friends. “I suppose that he felt both loneliness and pressure of studies, then he took the drastic step,” he said in the statement.

As per the sources, “The senior gave an oral deposition to the committee on February 17 and sent a signed written statement to the committee on February 19. In the meantime, a member of the Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) Cell called the senior student on February 18.”

Meanwhile, IITB official said, “The committee has not received any statement from the alumnus after his deposition.”