Student Dies In IIT Bombay. Suicide, Caste Discrimination Alleged

On Sunday afternoon, an IIT Bombay student, age 18, died allegedly after jumping from the seventh storey of his dormitory building on the campus of the university in Powai. There was no suicide note, and the police have opened an accident death investigation. Investigations are still ongoing, however, since a student organisation claims that he committed suicide because of prejudice on campus towards members of the Scheduled Caste.

BTech student Darshan Solanki, according to the police, is from Ahmedabad. His first semester tests for the course ended on Saturday, three months after he enrolled in it. The Powai police are investigating if the student’s intense academic pressure led to the drastic action.

Subhasis Chaudhuri, the institute’s director, stated in a letter to students: “We regret to inform you that an unfortunate occurrence this afternoon resulted in the death of a first-year student. Police in Powai are looking into the situation. The student’s parents have been notified and are on their way. We greatly lament the student’s passing and ask God to give the family the fortitude to cope with this loss. May he rest in peace, his soul.”

Akhila, a 22-year-old student at IIIT RK Valley in Andhra Pradesh, was discovered dead in her dorm room today. The final-year engineering student was a Kuwaiti laborer’s daughter. There was no suicide note discovered. The cause of the drastic action is being looked into by the police.

The institute was established in 2007 to provide deserving rural students with the option to enrol in elite institutions of higher learning despite their inability to pay for pricey coaching programmes.

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