IIT-D student protest enters fifth day, impasse continues

The standoff between protesting students and the administration of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) entered its fifth day on Friday, with hundreds of students continuing their agitation over the death of 31-year-old MSc Physics student Rishikesh Kumar and demanding accountability from the institute.

Students said they would continue the protests until all four of their demands were met: the resignation of the Dean (Students’ Welfare), an independent inquiry into alleged institutional lapses, ₹1 crore compensation for Kumar’s family, and an assurance that no action will be taken against students who participated in the agitation.

The protests followed Kumar’s death on August 22, when he allegedly jumped off the sixth floor of the Lecture Hall Complex. Students began demonstrating on August 24, and the agitation has since drawn participants from several departments.

The institute has constituted a five-member committee to examine the matter. It is headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Mukta Gupta and includes Pratap Sharan, head of the psychiatry department at AIIMS, two student representatives — one each from MSc Physics and MSc Mathematics— and IIT-D registrar Atul Vyas.

But students said the committee did not address their demand for an independent inquiry and that their concerns went beyond Kumar’s death. They said the agitation was also intended to highlight the deaths by suicide of seven other students since 2023.

On Friday, IIT-D director Rangan Banerjee termed Kumar’s death “a wake-up call” and said the administration was committed to reforms. “The loss of a young life isn’t just tragic, but also a wakeup call. We understand students are grieving and they are angry. We are grieving too. We are also trying to find a solution. We have differences in their approach but our intent is same,” Banerjee said in an interview with a student posted on X.

Students, however, alleged that Kumar’s difficulties had been visible for months and that the institute’s response had failed him.

A 30-year-old student said Kumar joined IIT-D in July 2025 and was elected class representative, unopposed, in both the first and second semesters. The student alleged that Kumar’s mental health struggles intensified in March and that he faced difficulties securing campus accommodation. “When we came back after summer break around mid-July, a room was allotted to him but later, in the revised list, his name was dropped,” the student said.

According to the student, Kumar subsequently requested accommodation again in August, but was denied. The student also said Kumar had struggled with finding a partner for a third-semester project after other students had already paired up. “He wasn’t confident to pursue the project alone, and requested a professor to pair him with somebody. But everyone had already paired up and four were pursuing the project as singles and didn’t want to pair up,” the student said.

The student said Kumar had previously told classmates that he felt “suffocated” in the residential locality of Katwaria Sarai, where he had rented a room and lived with his mother.

All students who spoke to HT requested anonymity, saying they “feared disciplinary action” and did not want to be seen interacting directly with the media. They said students had taken a “collective call” to communicate about the protests and their demands through social media.

“The disciplinary committee has been particularly active since the protest began, and there is a sense that students’ activities are under surveillance,” another student said.

A third student, a 26-year-old pursuing a master’s degree, said the repeated deaths had left students increasingly frustrated. “It’s my second year. I have seen three suicides in the institute so far. All we get from the administration is the same condolence message expressing solidarity. It’s the same template just the name and department changes and this makes us feel how little our lives matter here,” the student said.

A 21-year-old BTech mechanical engineering student alleged that remarks by some faculty members after Kumar’s death had further fuelled anger. “On day 1 of the protest, the Dean of Students Welfare told protesting students that he was ‘damaged beyond repair’. Then on Day 2, another professor said death was Kumar’s last wish and we should all respect that,” the student alleged.

For the past five days, two buildings near the main administrative block housing the director’s office have become gathering points for students, who have been balancing their academic commitments with the protests.

The students also took their agitation towards the main gate on Thursday night. A student alleged that barricades and security personnel prevented them from reaching the gate, where they had planned to address the media. The student said protesters subsequently marched towards the residential area of professors, raising slogans and appealing to faculty members to support them.

The institute, however, said that Thursday night’s protest contained “unsavoury, humiliating and threatening language”. In an email to students on Friday, Banerjee said a group of protesters had entered residential areas and demonstrated outside faculty housing.

“Unfortunately, the situation escalated significantly on the night of Thursday, August 27, 2026. A group of protestors extended their agitation into the campus residential zones, staging demonstrations directly in front of faculty housing and resorting to unsavoury, humiliating and threatening language in their slogans,” Banerjee said in the email, adding that disciplinary action would be taken against individuals disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus.

Students are also reaching out to alumni. A PhD scholar said students were running a signature campaign seeking support from the alumni network and other IITs. “Institutions like ours are built on the strength of their alumni networks. But that network must come forward not only in times of success, but also when the institution faces challenges,” the scholar said.

The scholar said that it was heavily implied by professors that they must all learn to cope with pressure. “We are constantly told that only the best ones survive and thrive in IITs and professors keep telling us that a diamond emerges after pressure,” the scholar said.