MUMBAI: Parents of the IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) student who died by suicide on September 18 are insisting on the arrest of the institute’s director Shireesh Kedare and Prof Suryanarayana Doolla as well as others named in the First Information Report (FIR) filed with the police.
Police said the family has reiterated their allegation that Prof Suryanarayana Doolla, who reported the boy’s alleged cheating to the institute’s authorities, had subjected their son to caste-based discrimination. “We have faith in the Crime Branch and the Constitution of India. We are only urging that the people responsible for my son’s death be arrested immediately. “After entering his second year, he started facing difficulties. Among the evidence being collected is CCTV footage showing events inside the examination hall, where the deceased was allegedly caught cheating. Cameras have captured a professor approaching the boy and escorting him away after the alleged cheating incident. Later, the boy is seen walking to the hostel and entering his room, where he was found dead later that day.
Only then will he get justice,” said the father of the deceased, a consultant for co-operative housing societies. When he told us caste-based comments were being made against him and that he was being tortured, we should have brought him home. He might have been saved,” the father said, stating that he had submitted evidence to the police on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased student are holding protests outside the family’s home in Yavatmal, demanding justice.
IIT-B issued a statement on Monday, apologising for commenting on details of the alleged copying incident while the case is under investigation. The Mumbai Crime Branch has started its investigation into the IIT-B student’s suicide by recording the statements of his parents on Tuesday. It has not apologised for claiming the boy had copied, per se. They have taken the boy’s mobile handset into their custody although they will need the help of experts to unlock it.
