IIT Bombay Student Suicide: IITB faculty members hold march in Doolla’s support

MUMBAI: Faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Bombay) on Monday held a march in the institute's campus in Mumbai to support Suryanarayana Doolla, who was removed as Dean of Administrative Affairs amid protests by students over the suicide of a 22-year-old student.

Police have booked Doolla under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and on abetment to suicide charge. The Faculty Forum said he followed "Senate-approved exam procedure when he reported second year B Tech student Sahil Wakode for alleged phone use on September 18.

Sahil, a second-year B Tech student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hotel room on the IIT Bombay's Powai campus on Friday evening, hours after he was allegedly caught using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination, according to officials.

His family alleged that Sahil, a native of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, was subjected to institutional harassment and caste-based discrimination before he took the extreme step, which triggered a protest by students on the campus.