IIT Bombay Student Representatives on Tuesday issued an official statement clarifying the core intent behind their recent campus protests, triggered after the death of second-year BTech student Sahil Wakode.
Wakode (22), a second-year BTech student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on the IIT Bombay’s Powai campus on the evening of September 18.
It resulted in and a police case against a professor under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act based on the complaint of his parents about alleged caste discrimination and harassment.
The student body has emphasised that their demonstrations were a push for systemic institutional reforms and urged that it must not be misconstrued as an endorsement of academic misconduct.
Addressing the circumstances that preceded Wakode’s death, the representatives firmly stated their position on the alleged exam incident.
“We do not stand for or condone cheating or any form of academic misconduct,” the official statement read. “At the same time, the loss of our fellow student, Sahil, is a deeply tragic event that has compelled us to reflect on the systems and processes within our Institute.”
They clarified that the ensuing student protests were not intended to justify cheating, but rather served as a “collective effort to raise concerns about systemic issues” and to demand meaningful reforms to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The statement also addressed the students’ demands regarding , who was the invigilator during the exam incident. The representatives stressed that they are not presuming guilt or prejudging the ongoing investigation.
“We stand with Professor Doolla as a member of our faculty community and believe that the investigation must be allowed to proceed fairly and impartially,” the statement noted.
Clarifying their specific administrative demand, the students explained that they only sought to have Doolla relieved of his duties as Dean of Administrative Affairs while the probe is active. This, they stated, was merely “a precautionary measure to ensure that the investigation remains completely independent and cannot be influenced in any manner.”
Acknowledging the recent open house held with the Director and institute administration, the representatives expressed satisfaction at having a direct platform to raise their concerns. Crucially, the student body firmly rejected any outside political involvement in the matter.
“As students, we believe that the concerns arising from this tragedy must remain student-led and addressed within the Institute,” the statement asserted. “The loss of Sahil should not become a platform for external political interests, organisations, or narratives to shape the concerns of the student community.”
The representatives concluded by insisting that the ongoing process of institutional reform must remain deeply rooted within the student community and the institute itself.
Speaking to the news agency PTI, several students at IIT Bombay said that targeting an individual professor was “completely wrong”.
“I think students disagree on the treatment of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla. The caste angle portrayed in the media is wrong and does not exist,” a student asserted.
Removal of Prof Doola from the post of Dean (Administrative Affairs) is completely wrong because he was doing his job, he claimed.
Another student rejected the media reports of caste discrimination and said, “In the institute, there is no discrimination on the basis of caste. Therefore, the media reports on caste bias in IIT Bombay are completely wrong.”
However, some students also alleged that Prof Doolla had a track record of suspending students over what they described as trivial reasons and removing them from hostels.
Students said measures taken during Prof Doolla’s tenure as Dean of Students Affairs had created a sense of fear, adding that his past record made them believe he could have ordered suspension if they had spoken of it following the incident.
