Darshan Solanki suicide case: SIT records statements of two IIT-B students

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has questioned two IIT-B students, including one mentioned in a suicide note left behind by Darshan Solanki, who died by suicide at IIT-B campus in Powai. The SIT is investigating if caste discrimination was the reason behind the suicide as alleged by Solanki's parents. The Powai police have registered an FIR against an unknown person for abetment to suicide under the Atrocities Act. Further investigation is ongoing.

MUMBAI: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday questioned two IIT-B students, including one whose name was mentioned in the purported suicide note left behind by Darshan Solanki, 18.

HT Image

The Powai police have registered FIR against an unknown person for abetment to suicide under the Atrocities Act on March 30 - over one and half months after Darshan died by suicide at IIT -B campus in Powai.

The SIT has interrogated the two students who were called again on Monday for questioning.

A senior crime branch officer said that the student named in the “suicide note” said in his statement that Solanki was very scared after the fight with him though he had said sorry to him. The reason behind the fight is not being revealed by the student and therefore we will have to call him again for questioning if required scientific tools will be used to record his statements, added the official.

He said the SIT was also investigating if caste discrimination was the reason behind Darshan’s extreme step, as alleged by his parents in the FIR.

The FIR was registered after Darshan’s parents reached out to chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and the commissioner of police Vivek Phansalkar on March 29 alleging that Mumbai crime branch’s special investigation team (SIT), set up to probe the case, was pressuring them to desist from making an accusation of caste-based discrimination, purportedly prevailing at IIT-B.

Darshan’s parents Ramesh Bhai and Tarlika Solanki, accompanied by other family members and a lawyer, visited the Powai police station on March 30 where their statements were recorded and an offence registered, said a police officer from the police station.

Darshan, a first-year chemical engineering student at IIT-B died by suicide on February 12. The incident sparked off a controversy after his parents alleged that their son was a victim of caste discrimination on the campus.

On March 16, Solanki, had submitted a written complaint to the Mumbai police, suspecting foul play in the death of his son. He had said that when a team from Powai police came to their residence in Ahmedabad on February 16, his daughter Janvi had informed them that her brother had revealed that he was facing caste-based discrimination from classmates and others on campus, when they learnt that he had availed NSL scholarship as an SC/ST student.

The FIR has registered under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code and section 3(2)(v) (knowingly commit an offence against a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or his or her property) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Further investigation is on.