Mumbai: IIT Bombay on Monday suspended Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla, Dean of Administrative Affairs, with immediate effect amid the student suicide investigation.
Second-year engineering student Sahil Wakode died by suicide after being allegedly caught cheating by Professor Doolla during a mid-semester examination on Friday.
Any further action, if necessary, will be taken once the investigation is completed, institute director Shirish B Kedare said in an email to students, HT reported.
Doolla, a faculty member of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was the invigilator during the examination when he found the student using ChatGPT on a mobile phone to seek answers. He reported the incident to higher authorities.
Wakode was counselled and allowed to leave without any disciplinary action, the institute said. The student was found dead in his hostel room later that evening.
IIT Bombay’s action against Doolla came after director Kedare signed an 18-point charter of demands submitted by protesting students on Sunday evening.
The students demanded accountability over Wakode’s death, an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and reforms to the institute’s academic and student-welfare systems.
Mumbai Police registered an FIR, naming Prof. Doolla and other officials of IIT Bombay, following a police complaint by the student’s father in which grave allegations were levelled against campus authorities.
According to the complaint, Prof. Doolla hurled casteist slurs at the student over the last three months.
Apology over earlier statement
IIT Bombay earlier retracted from its previous claims about the circumstances leading to the tragedy.
“We apologise for the statements contained in our earlier communication concerning the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Sahil,” the institute stated.
“The details and circumstances leading up to the incident remain subject to investigation by the appropriate authorities. In view of the ongoing investigation, it was inappropriate to have set out or characterised details relating to the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established through the appropriate investigative process,” it added.
‘Director has not resigned’
The institute also dismissed media reports claiming that the IIT Bombay director had resigned.
“Director IIT Bombay has NOT resigned. We categorically state that the related news is false,” the institute wrote on its official X handle.
