Student dies by suicide in IIT Bombay, caste discrimination alleged

Mumbai: An 18-year-old student of IIT Bombay died by suicide on Sunday afternoon. He jumped from the seventh floor of the hosel building at the campus in Powai.

Darshan Solanki was a BTech student from Ahmedabad. His course started three months ago and the first semester exams concluded on Saturday. The police have registered a case of accident death since there was no suicide note. An investigation is on. The police are also probing if the pressure of studies caused his death.

A student group alleged that he was driven to suicide by the discrimination against Scheduled Caste students on the campus. The APPSC (Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle) IIT Bombay tweeted: "We mourn the loss of an 18-year-old Dalit student, Darshan Solanki, who joined @iitbombay 3 months back for his BTech. We must understand that this is not a personal/individualised issue, but an institutional murder."

They mentioned that the general atmosphere in the IIT Bombay campus is at which reservations are equated with a lack of merit.

"Despite our complaints, the institute did not care to make the space inclusive and safe for dalit bahujan adivasi students. First-year students face the most harassment in terms of anti-reservation sentiments and taunts of non-deserving and non-meritorious. There is a lack of representation of faculty and counsellors from the marginalized," read another tweet by the group.

The study circle also took to Instagram and alleged that students from SC/ST community face "immense harassment and discrimination on the campus from students, faculties and employees" and that it is not a hidden fact.