IIT-B student suicide case: Parents allege caste discrimination, FIR filed against professor

A second-year student at IIT Bombay, Sahil Wakode, died by suicide hours after being caught using a mobile phone to access ChatGPT answers during an examination. Professor Suryanarayan Doolla, who was invigilating, asked the student to leave the examination hall.

Following the incident, Wakode's parents alleged that their son faced relentless caste discrimination by the IIT Bombay administration. The father claimed in his complaint that Professor Doolla had been making casteist remarks for three months on the instructions of IIT Bombay Director Professor Shireesh B Kedare. An FIR was lodged on 19 September by Mumbai Police against Professor Doolla and others under charges of abetment of suicide and sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The parents stated that Wakode had previously informed them about facing discrimination and difficulties on campus.