An IIT Bombay professor has been named as an accused in connection with the alleged suicide of a 22-year-old student on the campus, and the city police have transferred the investigation to the Crime Branch, officials said on Sunday.
Professor named as accused in student death case
Sahil Ravindra Wakode was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his room in Hostel Number 4 on the Powai campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay on Friday evening, hours after he was allegedly caught using a mobile phone and ChatGPT during a mid-semester examination, they said.
Wakode, a native of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, was a second-year BTech student in the Energy Science and Engineering department.
According to a statement from IIT Bombay, the student had allegedly uploaded the examination question paper to ChatGPT to seek answers during the exam.
Wakode's parents claimed their son was subjected to institutional harassment and caste-based discrimination before his death.
The Powai police on Saturday registered a case under section 108 (abetment of suicide) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the complaint of his parents.
An IIT Bombay professor was named as an accused in the case, which was transferred to the Crime Branch for further probe, to be handled by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Detection, a police official said.
Probe transferred to Crime Branch
No arrests have been made so far, and further investigation was underway, the official added.
The institute, in a statement issued late on Friday, said that the student was found using a mobile phone in the exam hall earlier that day. But no disciplinary action was initiated against him, it stated.
The instructor and the Head of the Department had discussed the matter with the student and counselled him, assuring him the incident would not adversely affect his academic career.
He subsequently returned to his hostel room and was found dead later in the evening.
Students protest, third suicide in seven months
The incident also triggered protests on campus, with students demanding an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death.
It is the third reported case of suicide on the IIT Bombay campus in seven months.
In February, a second-year student died by suicide in a hostel. In July, at the beginning of the new semester, a 20-year-old second-year BTech student had also ended his life.