IIT Bombay inquiry committee rules out caste angle in student’s death

An inquiry panel, set up by IIT Bombay, in its report stated that except for one subject, Darshan Solanki’s performance in all others was very poor and that it deteriorated specifically in the second half of the autumn semester. 

Darshan Solanki, an 18-year-old engineering student of IIT Bombay, allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building located on the campus.

An inquiry panel, set up by IIT Bombay to probe the alleged suicide of a BTech student Darshan Solanki in February, has found there is “no specific evidence of direct caste-based discrimination” faced by the student. The institute said the student may have ended life due to deteriorating academic performance, The Indian Express reported. 

Darshan Solanki, a first-year student of BTech (chemical) programme at IIT Bombay, allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building located on the campus on February 12. His family had claimed that he faced discrimination at IIT Bombay for belonging to a Scheduled Caste community and suspected foul play in his death. 

IIT Bombay constituted a 12-member inquiry committee, headed by Professor Nand Kishore of the chemistry department, to probe the circumstances leading to his death. The committee has said in its report that only Solanki’s sister has said that her brother had mentioned “caste-related issues faced by some students at IIT Bombay and that he had also faced it himself”. 

The report states members of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle and Ambedkarite Students Collective who deposed before the committee highlighted instances of caste discrimination on campus but “none of them had ever met Darshan Solanki or directly knew if he was facing any kind of problem individually”. 

“Therefore, other than the statement of his sister, there is no specific evidence of direct caste-based discrimination faced by Darshan Solanki during his stay at IIT Bombay,” the interim report states. 

While the committee has ruled out caste discrimination as a cause, it has talked about Solanki’s academic performance in the report. It says except for one subject, Solanki’s performance in all others was very poor and that it deteriorated specifically in the second half of the autumn semester.” 

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