The parents of Sahil Wakode, the 22-year-old IIT Bombay student found dead in his hostel room on September 18, said on Tuesday that he had told them about caste discrimination earlier as well by the professor now named in the FIR related to the suicide.
“I told him it’s difficult to secure admission in IIT, and told him to bear it,” said the father, Ravindra Wakode.
“Doolla used to do caste discrimination against my son. “My son was a bright student. Cracking the JEE Advanced is not an ordinary achievement… They may make all kinds of false allegations and say that he cheated his way into cracking JEE Advanced. They may say anything and try to divert the matter. My only demand is that the accused be arrested.”
Because no suicide note was found, and widened the case after the family’s complaint, police had first registered an accidental death report. A student of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at the elite institute, Sahil was later found dead in his room at Hostel Number 4 on the campus in Mumbai’s Powai last Friday. The Powai Police registered an FIR on the complaint of Sahil’s parents under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with abetment of suicide, and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as the student was a Dalit.
My son had earlier communicated about this discrimination, but I told him it’s difficult to secure admission in IIT, and told him to bear it,” the father said. He also named IIT Bombay director Shireeh Kedare as another person who “tortured” Sahil. “Only after the arrests will everything come out,” the father said on Tuesday.
