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IIT-B student accused of abetting batch mate’s suicide granted bail
IIT-Bombay student Arman Khatri, who was arrested for abetting a batch mate's suicide, has been granted bail by a special court under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Khatri had to post a personal bond of INR25,000 and one or more sureties of the same amount. Khatri said in his bail plea that the committee IIT-B established to probe the suicide did not find anything against him.
A special court on Saturday gave bail to Arman Khatri, a student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay who was arrested for abetting a batch mate’s suicide on February 12.
The court set up under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, asked Khatri “not to make any inducement or threat to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him or her from disclosing the facts to the court or any police officer or tamper with the evidence”. The court also restrained him from leaving Mumbai without permission.
Khatri had to post a personal bond of ₹25,000 and one or more sureties of the same amount.
Khatri said in his bail plea that the committee IIT-B established to probe the suicide did not find anything against him. Even Powai police, who investigated the death, ruled out foul play, he said, adding that he was falsely implicated in the case.
In the last hearing, the special investigation team had told the court that the IIT-B committee did not conduct a proper inquiry as it only spoke to two of the victim’s friends over the phone to find out what had happened. Their statements were not recorded nor was any formal record of the inquiry maintained, it had said.
The 18-year-old first-year chemical engineering student jumped from the seventh floor of his hostel on February 12. Some students and a security guard took him to the hospital on campus where doctors declared him brought dead.
The next day, the victim’s family members allegedly told police they did not suspect foul play. However, on February 16, when a Powai police team went to their residence in Ahmedabad, the family said the deceased was a victim of caste discrimination.
On February 24, the state government set up a three-member SIT headed by Lakhmi Gautam, joint commissioner of police, crime branch. The SIT, on March 3, found a purported suicide note in the victim’s room. “Arman has killed me,” the note is supposed to have said.
Khatri was arrested on April 9 after police said their investigations revealed that the victim had made an adverse comment on his religion and Khatri allegedly threatened him with a paper cutter, saying that he would not spare him. The chemical engineering student thereafter died by suicide, investigators claimed.
