10-member IIT-Bombay committee begins probe into student’s alleged suicide

The committee will examine all aspects, including allegations levelled by the student’s parents regarding caste-based discrimination.

Mumbai: A 10-member committee appointed by the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has started probing the circumstances surrounding the alleged suicide of a 20-year-old BTech student, who was found dead in his hostel room on September 18, hours after being caught while allegedly using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination.

On Wednesday, activists from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi staged a protest outside IIT Bombay, demanding justice for the deceased BTech student. (Praful Gangurde/ HT Photo)

The committee will examine all aspects of the incident, including allegations levelled by the student’s parents regarding caste-based discrimination leading to his death.

The committee headed by Prof Ramesh Venkateswaran, chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT-Palakkad, was appointed on Tuesday, four days after the student was found dead. It has been asked to submit its report within a week.

A senior IIT-B official said the composition of the committee had been shared with the education ministry and its approval was awaited.

Apart from Prof Venkateswaran, the 10-member committee includes faculty members, students, an administrator, a former vigilance officer and a psychiatrist.

Faculty members on the panel are Prof K Narayanan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Deepti Kalsi from the Department of Chemistry, and Prof Sandip Kumar Saha from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prof Saha is also the convener of the institute’s SC/ST Students and Staff Cell.

The committee has three student members – Aditya Joshi, general secretary of hostel affairs; Dev Arora, overall coordinator of the Student Mentor Programme; and research scholar Devi Lal.

The other members are retired IAS officer Vishwanath Giriraj, former IIT-B vigilance officer Prof KG Suresh from the Department of Physics and psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.

Meanwhile, questions abound regarding the role of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla in events preceding the student’s death. The professor has been named in the first information report registered by the Powai police, and he is accused of abetment to suicide on grounds of caste discrimination. On Monday, he was removed as the Dean of Administrative Affairs following protests over the student’s death.

Some IIT-B faculty members have claimed that Prof Doolla has been asked to go on leave pending the inquiry. But, the institute has not confirmed the same officially.

Faculty members’ bodies from several IITs, including IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati, have expressed support for their counterparts at IIT-B and called for due process in the matter.