IIT-Bombay Student's Suicide Sparks Row; Caste Discrimination Alleged

A day after an 18-year-old student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, died by suicide, a student group alleged that he was taken extreme step due to discrimination against Scheduled Caste students on the campus.

The Powai Police said the deceased was a first-year student of chemical engineering and had joined the institute three months ago. A native of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, he was staying with a roommate on the eighth floor of the Hostel 16/B on the campus. “The student jumped from the refuge area of the eighth floor at around 1pm on Sunday. He was rushed to the hospital on the campus, where he was declared dead before admission,” police said. 

A police team conducted inquiries on the campus and found some eyewitnesses who had seen him jumping from the floor. The police have not found any suicide note.

However, the APPSC (Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle) IIT Bombay alleged that “this is not a personal/individualised issue, but an institutional murder”.

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