IIT Delhi warns of disciplinary action over ‘threatening slogans’ amid student protest
IIT Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee has warned of disciplinary action against students accused of disrupting the “peaceful functioning of the campus” by raising “threatening slogans” during protests following the alleged suicide of a 31-year-old MSc student.
In an email to students on Friday, Banerjee said the protests had “escalated significantly” on Thursday night, with demonstrations extending to residential areas on the campus.
He said a group of protesters gathered outside faculty residences between 10.30 pm and 12.30 am and used “unsavoury, humiliating and threatening language” in their slogans.
“Such behaviour compromises the safety, privacy, and peace of faculty members and their families, including young children and elderly dependents,” Banerjee said.
He warned that the institute would take disciplinary action against those disrupting activities on campus, including in residential areas.
“The Institute will take disciplinary actions against individuals disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus including residential areas, classes, academic and other activities,” he wrote.
The warning came as student protests entered their sixth consecutive day following the death of the student, identified as Kumar. Protesters have been demanding an independent inquiry, action against institute officials and compensation for his family.
Meanwhile, IIT Delhi on Thursday reconstituted its external probe panel examining the circumstances surrounding the student’s death, appointing retired Delhi High Court judge Justice Mukta Gupta as its chairperson.
The move came a day after former Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar, who had been appointed to head the panel, recused himself citing “personal reasons”.
The 31-year-old MSc student allegedly died by suicide after jumping from a building on the IIT Delhi campus on August 22.
