Mumbai:
IIT Bombay professor Suryanarayana Doolla has been interrogated by Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch for about eight hours over the suicide of a student on the campus last month.
Sahil Wakode, 22, was found hanging in his hostel room on the IIT’s Powai campus on September 18, hours after he was caught using a mobile phone in the examination hall.
His parents had alleged that Prof Doolla subjected him to caste discrimination and demanded his arrest.
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Professor Doolla today denied the allegations and stated that he adhered to the institute’s guidelines and did not use any casteist slurs or humiliating language against the student, sources said.
The authorities are now verifying his statement in the backdrop of the available evidence and other testimonies, they added.
After his name emerged in the case, Doolla was removed as the dean of students’ welfare and sent on leave.
CCTV visuals from September 18 had shown him pulling aside Wakode after catching him using a mobile phone during an exam. Condoling Wakode’s death, the institute had said that he had uploaded the question paper on ChatGPT to seek answers, but no disciplinary action was taken against him.
The student’s father, Ravindra Wakode, had claimed that his son had told him about being discriminated against by Prof Doolla. “My son had told me about this discrimination, but I told him it’s difficult to secure admission in IIT and to bear with it,” he told reporters.
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Mumbai Police later filed an abetment to suicide based on a complaint lodged by him.
The IIT Bombay faculty, however, came out in support of Prof Doolla, stating that he is being maligned for just doing his job.
“The student indulged in malpractice during the exam. Prof Doolla reported the matter to the head of the department. If a professor is being vilified just for discharging his duties, then it is a problem for the entire teaching community in the country,” Prof Rajkumar Pant, chief of IIT Bombay Faculty Forum, told NDTV.
(With inputs from Ruttik Ganakwar)
