A candle-light march was held at IIT Bombay on Sunday in the memory of the student.
Mumbai:
A day after an 18-year-old student of IIT Bombay allegedly died by suicide due to discrimination, the institute said that they are investigating the case and it would be wrong to make accusations of discrimination on campus.
“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”,” the educational institute said in a statement today.
Police registered a case of accidental death after Darshan Solanki, a BTech student, died apparently after he jumped off the seventh floor of the hostel building on Sunday.
Cops haven’t found a suicide note yet, but a student group is alleging that Solanki was driven to suicide due to discrimination against Scheduled Caste students on the campus.
He had enrolled for the course three months ago and his first semester exams concluded on Saturday.
The APPSC (Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle) IIT Bombay, tweeted: “We mourn the loss of an 18 year old dalit student, Darshan Solanki, who joined @iitbombay 3 months back for his BTech. We must understand that this is not a personal/individualised issue, but an institutional murder”.
The group alleged that the institute did not make the space safe for dalit, adivasi and bahujan students despite their complaints.
“First-year students face the most harassment in terms of anti-reservation sentiments and taunts of non-deserving and non- meritorious,” APPSC tweeted.
We mourn the loss of an 18 year old dalit student, Darshan Solanki, who joined @iitbombay 3 months back for his BTech. We must understand that this is not a personal/individualised issue, but an institutional murder. Despite our complaints the institute did not care to make the pic.twitter.com/qKH6Vw1HPE
— APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) February 12, 2023
IIT Bombay said that based on initial inputs, they did not find that Darshan Solanki had faced any such discrimination.
“The institute takes utmost precautions to make the campus as inclusive as possible. IIT Bombay has zero tolerance for any discrimination by faculty.”
They also said that a student’s caste is never disclosed to anyone once they have been admitted.
“IIT Bombay has an SC/ST student cell where students can reach in case of any issues including discrimination,” the institute said.
The institute admitted that their steps cannot be 100% effective, but in case there is any discrimination by students, it would be an exception.
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