Mumbai: A 10-member committee appointed by the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has started probing the circumstances surrounding the alleged suicide of a 20-year-old BTech student, who was found dead in his hostel room on September 18, hours after being caught while allegedly using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination.
The committee will examine all aspects of the incident, including allegations levelled by the student’s parents regarding caste-based discrimination leading to his death. It has been asked to submit its report within a week. Faculty members on the panel are Prof K Narayanan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Deepti Kalsi from the Department of Chemistry, and Prof Sandip Kumar Saha from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prof Saha is also the convener of the institute’s SC/ST Students and Staff Cell. The committee has three student members – Aditya Joshi, general secretary of hostel affairs; Dev Arora, overall coordinator of the Student Mentor Programme; and research scholar Devi Lal. Meanwhile, questions abound regarding the role of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla in events preceding the student’s death. The professor has been named in the first information report registered by the Powai police, and he is accused of abetment to suicide on grounds of caste discrimination.
The committee headed by Prof Ramesh Venkateswaran, chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT-Palakkad, was appointed on Tuesday, four days after the student was found dead. On Monday, he was removed as the Dean of Administrative Affairs following protests over the student’s death.
