Darshan Solanki Suicide Case: IIT-B Officials Deny Allegations of Caste-Based Discrimination

An FIR has been filed against an unidentified person by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the city crime branch in the case of the alleged suicide of IIT-Bombay student Darshan Solanki. The FIR has been filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Solanki had jumped from the seventh-storey of the hostel building on February 12, a day after his semester exams ended. Initially, the Powai police had reported his death as an accident. However, Solanki's father, Ramesh Solanki, claimed that his son had been discriminated against based on his caste and that foul play was involved.

Three weeks after Solanki's death, a suicide letter was discovered by police, in which a student who is not mentioned in the FIR is blamed. The SIT was established to investigate Solanki's suicide on the Powai campus. The case was filed a day after the family claimed that the SIT was pressuring them to include details in the FIR that were not present in the complaint report. Ramesh Solanki claimed that the event was not accurately described as a suicide in the FIR.

According to Ramesh Solanki, Darshan had informed his sister that he was experiencing caste-based prejudice from classmates and other people. The police team that toured Ahmedabad refused to record the statements of Darshan's aunt and uncle, according to Ramesh in the FIR. Darshan had spoken to his aunt about the prejudice he had experienced from peers after they discovered he had received a grant from the National grant Portal as an SC/ST student. Ramesh claimed that "police have purposefully neglected to record this statement, which can be taken as evidence of incidents of caste discrimination with Darshan on the campus".

Meanwhile, IIT-B officials have denied the allegations of caste-based discrimination on campus. They are attempting to minimise the gravity of this by claiming that Solanki committed suicide as a result of academic pressure. However, Solanki's family has maintained that his death was the result of caste-based harassment and discrimination by individuals working at the institution. The case is ongoing, and further investigations are being conducted by the SIT to uncover the truth behind Solanki's death.