Suicide on IIT-B campus: Athawale, Solankis demand probe; students’ body claims lack of institutional support

Mumbai/Ahmedabad: Three days after Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old B.Tech student at IIT-Bombay allegedly died by suicide, on Wednesday, Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale visited the campus and demanded a thorough probe into his death and the allegations of caste discrimination.

Calling it a “serious incident”, Athawale said, “In 2014, a Dalit student ended his life in a similar way. Six months back, another student outside IIT-B died by suicide. Such incidents are increasing and require probe.” He added that Maharashtra and Gujarat governments would extend financial aid to the family.

While on Tuesday, the institute’s administration had stated that it took care to make the campus as inclusive as possible with a zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, after the minister’s visit, the institute’s SC/ST cell converged and met with representatives of Ambedkar Phule Periyar Study Circle (APPSC), a students’ collective at the institute. Together, they plan to interact with students to ease out any conflict that may be facing.

The APPSC has demanded the director’s resignation, holding him responsible for lack of institutional support for SC/ST students. It stated that there were “consistent attempts by the administration, including the director, to outrightly deny any caste discrimination on campus”. It added when students asked for a much-needed discussion on the subject, they were accused of “harming the prestige of this premier institute”.

APPSC also underlined that the institute had failed to implement the recommendations of the A K Suresh Committee, established after the suicide of the Aniket Ambhore in 2014. “The unwillingness to appoint SC/ST counsellors even after our complaints shows the blatant disregard towards students. We want the administration to stop hiding the reports of surveys conducted by SC/ST cell as well as others, and release them for public discussion as soon as possible,” the statement added.

Ahmedabad based Solankis were equally vociferous about their demand for justice, emphatic that Darshan’s “mysterious death posed many questions” claiming that he had indeed faced caste discrimination on campus. Darshan’s sister, Jhanvi Solanki, said, “My brother was murdered. The institute is trying to protect its reputation by calling it a suicide. All his life, my brother strongly condemned suicide. He would casually tell me how the upper caste students looked down upon fellow students from the lower caste.”

She reiterated that like Darshan other Dalit students faced mockery from those belonging to the privileged class as well – their bone of contention being them “enjoying freebies in education at such a great institute”.

She said the family had a spoken to Darshan a few hours before his suicide when he “sounded alright and wished a cousin’s daughter on her birthday”.

Darshan’s father, Rameshbhai Solanki, who lives in the Uttam Nagar municipal quarters, said he had received a call from the dean of the faculty at 2:30 pm, who said Darshan was in an accident and the family should reach the institute soon.

“On reaching the institute we were told that my son is no more – he had died by suicide. I was not allowed to see him as the post-mortem was to be done the next day, for which the administration required my signature on certain documents. We waited through the morning and afternoon to be told around 2:30 pm that the post mortem was done. It was carried out without our consent,” said Rameshbhai Solanki. “The institute made a WhatsApp call to us, which cannot be recorded, which raises our suspicion further,” added Jhanvi.

The family who has returned to Ahmedabad, will hold a prayer meeting on Thursday in Darshan’s memory, following which leaders of the Dalit community will meet at the Ahmedabad circuit house to decide the future course of action, said Kantibhai Parmar, a social activist and a member of the Dalit Shakti Kendra, an organisation that works for the rights of Dalits.