The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has suspended its dean of administrative affairs, Prof Suryanarayana Doolla , after massive student protests prompted the institute to take action after a second-year BTech student died by suicide at its Powai campus on Friday.
Students said the punishment provisions needed to be examined in the context of the September 18 incident and questioned whether the existing system provides enough support to students facing serious academic consequences. The premier engineering institute has also issued a written apology for a statement it had issued on the circumstances surrounding the death, acknowledging that it was not appropriate to have commented on the matter as it is under investigation. The boy’s father had claimed that his son was mocked, tortured and discriminated on caste lines and demanded probe into the role of the IIT Bombay administration in his son’s death.
Soon after the suicide, the institute had said the student had been caught using a mobile phone to access ChatGPT during a mid-semester exam. But students at the institute said their protests would continue till Doolla is suspended from his posts as professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering and the investigation into the suicide is complete. Doolla’s suspension, the institute’s apology and assurances on several other issues were made by the IIT-B administration during an open house that lasted three and a half hours on Monday evening.
Jeevan claimed that official statements released prior to a detailed investigation aimed to protect faculty members, adding that non-compliance with faculty reservation norms remains an unaddressed root issue. We also reiterate that we are pained by the sad demise of our student due to the unfortunate incident on September 18,” the statement added. “We are distressed by the vilification of our colleague’s reputation by false and misleading media reports.
