29 September,2026 08:59 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Representational image. File pic
Days after the death of an IIT Bombay second year BTech student, the Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA), along with several Ambedkarite and equality organisations, have written a letter to the institute's director seeking a series of measures for the students.
The letter also demands an independent inquiry and greater protection for SC/ST students on campus.
The students was found dead in his hostel room on September 18, hours after he was allegedly found using a phone during a mid-semester examination.
The letter points out to the claims of the deceased student's parents who have claimed that the student faced casteist remarks and harassment.
An FIR registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and provisions relating to abetment of suicide under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita names an IIT Bombay faculty member.
The organisation have raised objections to IIT Bombay's initial public statement about the circumstances surrounding the student's removal from the examination.
AANA alleged that the statement contributed to online abuse targeting the SC/ST community. It also questioned a subsequent statement by the IIT Bombay SC/ST Cell that he had not approached the cell with a complaint, arguing that the absence of a formal complaint should not be treated as evidence that discrimination did not occur.
The letter also refers to a faculty march held on the IIT Bombay campus on September 21 in support of a colleague named in the FIR.
AANA in the letter wrote, "The Faculty Forum described the allegations against the faculty member as "vilification" and alleged that SC/ST students had faced targeting following the complaint. The organisation further questioned the administration's response to the march."
These are allegations made in the letter and are not independently established by the press release.
The organisations have also questioned how examination-hall CCTV footage came into public circulation. According to the letter, footage from the examination hall was circulated on social media and was used to portray Wakode as having been "caught cheating".
AANA said footage from other locations, including outside the examination hall and the Dean's office, had not been disclosed.
It has asked IIT Bombay to clarify whether it released or authorised the circulation of the footage and to account for how the material reached the public domain.
AANA and the organisations have made six broad demands to IIT Bombay:
