MUMBAI: The IIT-Bombay on Tuesday rejected charges of caste bias in the institute after a first-year student allegedly committed suicide, saying initial inputs from friends suggest that there was no discrimination, and urged students to wait till police and internal probes are over.
Darshan Solanki (18) died allegedly after jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building on the Powai campus of the premier institute on Sunday. Solanki, who hailed from Ahmedabad, was a first-year student of the B.Tech (Chemical) course.
"IIT Bombay strongly refutes claims in some news articles about the tragic death of a 1st year BTech student that imply that the cause was discrimination, and say it amounted to institutional murder. 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," it said in a statement.
IIT-B's rebuttal comes a day after Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle, a student group, called Solanki's death an "institutional murder."
The institute said it takes utmost precautions to make the campus as inclusive as possible and it has zero tolerance for any discrimination by faculty. Caste identity is never disclosed to anyone (whether students or faculty) once the admission is done and the institute sensitises students to not seek proxy information such as ranks in entrance exams. It also gives strong warnings against discrimination right from the time students enter IIT.
While no steps can be 100 per cent effective, discrimination by students, if at all it occurs, is an exception, the premier institute said.
It asked students to 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. IIT-Bombay has an SC/ST student cell where students can reach in case of any issues including discrimination.
There have been very few complaints to the cell, whether against faculty or other students, over the past many years, and only one case was found to have substance and strict action has been taken, the institute's statement said. It said right from the orientation programme, students are encouraged to seek support from student counsellors at the student wellness centre, or from its hospital, whenever they need it.
A police official said they are probing the case from all angles.
"A group of students has tweeted mentioning he (Solanki) was driven to take the extreme step due to discrimination against scheduled caste students on the campus. We will investigate the case from all possible angles. We will inquire with students too, but as of now an accidental death report has been registered in the case," the police official said.