IIT Bombay student death: Protests continue outside Powai campus as demands for police action rise

Protests continued outside the main gate of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay IIT Bombay in Powai on Wednesday days after a student died by suicide in his hostel room after allegedly being caught cheating during midsemester examsThe protest comes even after the students inside the campus have distanced themselves from these activities via social media statementsThe circumstances surrounding the death of the student have since triggered protests and allegations of castebased discriminationWhile academic activities continued normally inside the institute on Wednesday students were informed that mental health support infrastructure had been strengthened on September 23Counselling hours were increased at some hostels and were scheduled to continue until 9 pm according to studentsldquoThe counselling hours were increased and the campus life is slowly getting back to normal A change we are seeing at the moment is that all delivery partners are being restricted at the gate for student safetyrdquo a campus resident saidVarious groups seek further investigationOn September 23 members of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi staged a demonstration outside the IIT Bombay gate in support of the deceased student and allegations of castebased discriminationAt the same time some IIT Bombay alumni and independent groups have questioned the basis of the allegations and called for a further probe into the circumstances surrounding the students deathVinay Joshi leading the Legal Rights Observatory said ldquoWe have written an email complaint to the Mumbai Police about professors and advocates for allegedly spreading fake news and stirring castebased riots and spreading provocative postsrdquoAccording to reports a 10member panel is being constituted to investigate the events surrounding the students death Prof Suryanarayana Doolla who has been named in the FIR has also reportedly been given a weeks leaveEmails go viral on social mediaIn the meantime an alleged previous email was sent across by Prof Suryanarayana Doolla back when he was Dean of Students AffairsldquoIIT Bombay aims to have high inclusivity within the campus and wants students to bond with each other irrespective of factors such as caste religion or socioeconomic statusIIT Bombay implements and is proud to implement the reservation policy of the Constitution in letter and in spiritrdquo stated the mail as per student sourcesThe email clarified that IIT Bombay considers it inappropriate to ask a fellow student about their birthadmission category and JEE Advanced ranksGATE scores or any other information that may reveal the caste or other related aspectsldquoWhile the person asking the question may feel it is innocent and it may be driven purely by curiosity asking the question can often have an adverse impact on the other student Asking could appear like an attempt to find the caste and may set the stage for discriminationrdquo stated the email while prohibiting any exchange of jokes of this nature hateful remarks harassment or bullying on the campus and even onlineIITB Students Distance themselves from protestsTaking to social media a group of IIT Bombay students distanced themselves from the protests that continue to resume The IIT Bombay students who were part of it never demanded the resignation of Prof Surya Prof Kedare or any other professor The people who are still protesting and pushing such demands are not IIT Bombay students stated the postAs per students the demonstrations now being seen can be attributed to people associated with political organisationsIt is also deeply misleading to use IIT Bombay students as a shield for demands that students themselves did not make Disagreements over academic rules including rules around examinations and academic integrity should not be turned into a political spectacle in the name of students the posts mentioned