Two days after a first-year B.Tech student belonging to the Dalit community committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of a hostel on its premises, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay on Tuesday refuted news reports in a section of the media implying that the cause of death was discrimination, and say it amounted to "institutional murder".
Eighteen-year-old Darshan Solanki, a resident of hostel number 16 of IIT-B who hailed from Ahmadabad and had joined the Institute three months go to pursue Bachelor in Technology (B.Tech) in Chemical Engineering, had jumped from the eighth floor of his hostel building on Sunday afternoon.
The incident took place a day after the first semester exams for the first-year students ended on Saturday. No suicide note was found either on his body or in his hostel room Having registered a case of "accidental death", the Powai police are investigating the matter.
Contesting the allegations of "lapses" made by the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle IIT-B leading to the student's death, the IIT-B management said: "It is wrong to make such accusations when the police are still investigating the case. Based on initial inputs from friends, there is no indication that the student faced any such discrimination"
"We request that such unfounded allegations not be spread. Please wait for the completion of the ongoing police investigation, as well as an internal investigation by IIT which will be done in a time bound manner," the IIT-B said in a statement issued here.