IIT Bombay director Shireesh Kedare met protesting students for three hours late on Sunday and signed a list of 18 demands after the death by suicide of 20-year-old BTech student Sahil Wakode triggered demonstrations at the institute’s Powai campus. The institute’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet on Monday, while an open house with students is also expected.
The meeting took place after students gathered in large numbers at the institute’s main gate on Friday night. Wakode, a second-year student of energy science and engineering, died hours after he was caught using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination. The Times of India reported that he allegedly uploaded the examination paper to an artificial intelligence platform for answers.
An institute official said discussions on the students’ demands would continue and that “due process will be followed”. The administration’s statement said no action had been initiated against Wakode. However, students have alleged that he was threatened with suspension, creating a dispute over what happened after the examination incident and how the matter was handled by the institute.
Wakode’s family has filed a First Information Report against Professor Suryanarayana Doolla and “other institute officials”, accusing them of abetment and harassment over the previous three months. Doolla was the teacher and invigilator during the examination. His suspension is the foremost demand in the list submitted by students.
The demands also call for an open apology for what students described as the defamation of Wakode, and an open house involving all stakeholders. Students have sought that the meeting be held before September 22. They are also asking for an independent investigation committee with student representatives and external members recommended by them, suspension of officials found guilty after the inquiry, and fair compensation for the family.
Other demands focus on the institutional environment rather than only the immediate incident. Students have asked for a code of conduct and sensitisation measures for professors, placing questions about academic discipline, student welfare and the exercise of authority within the same review process.
The IIT-Bombay faculty forum has opposed action against Doolla and expressed solidarity with him. In a statement issued on Sunday, the forum said the professor had been “discharging his duties in line with the institute’s Senate approved academic policies currently in force”. It said Doolla had reported the alleged academic malpractice to institute authorities as required under the approved procedure and criticised what it called the tarnishing of his reputation.
The protest follows another student death by suicide on the campus earlier this year, making Wakode’s death the third such case reported at IIT Bombay in 2026. The institute is also planning to replace ceiling fans with wall-mounted fans in student hostels. Sources told the Times of India that the proposal had been under consideration for two months and was recently finalised. Students said the first batch of wall-mounted fans had arrived on campus.
Replacing the fans was among measures the institute had assured students it would undertake in July after another student from the same hostel died by suicide. The Board of Governors meeting and the proposed open house are the next formal steps in the institute’s response to the current protest.
