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HomeIndia'Suicide note' found in IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki's room indicates 'caste-based...

‘Suicide note’ found in IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki’s room indicates ‘caste-based harassment’

Note recovered by SIT probing 1st year student's death last month 'names a batchmate'. Initially, 'poor academic performance' was cited as reason for Solanki's 'death by suicide'.

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Mumbai: More than a month after IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki allegedly died by suicide, officers part of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case have said that the recovery of a “suicide note” from the first-year student’s hostel room, which names a batchmate, indicates that Solanki may have faced caste-based harassment on campus.

“We were searching his room and a note was found in his room that says X person has killed me,” an officer who is part of the investigating team told ThePrint.

The officer added that following the recovery of the note, Solanki’s parents were called in by the police to confirm whether the handwriting was his and his mother had done so.

“We have sent the paper to handwriting experts as well, but his mother is saying that the writing is Darshan’s,” said the officer.

ThePrint reached Solanki’s family over phone, but received no response till the time of publication of this report. The copy will be updated once a response is received. ThePrint also reached IIT Bombay on text messages for comment, but received no response till the time of publication of this report.

Solanki, a first-year B.Tech. student, died on 12 February, a day after his semester exams got over. While initially, it was believed that he jumped off the seventh floor owing to poor academic performance, his family and members of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle at IIT Bombay had claimed that he was facing caste-based discrimination on campus and that he had spoken about the same to his sister.

Though IIT-Bombay had denied any caste-based discrimination, the outrage by Solanki’s family and the IIT Bombay group had resulted in the state government forming an SIT, headed by Lakhmi Gautam, joint commissioner of police, Mumbai Crime Branch, to probe the case.

Solanki’s parents had demanded that the death be investigated as murder.

The family was with the police Monday and the officer said that it was expected that by Tuesday an FIR will be filed against the person named in the suicide note, after which “we can interrogate the named person”.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: What explains the ‘33 student suicides at IITS since 2018’ — academic stress, mental health issues?


 

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