The parents of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode are preparing to approach the Bombay High Court seeking what they describe as a fair investigation into his death, a change in the investigating officer and further action in the case registered against professor Suryanarayana Doolla for alleged abetment to suicide.
Wakode’s father, Ravindra Wakode, also plans to continue his hunger strike, shifting the protest from Azad Maidan to a location near the IIT Bombay gate after informing the police. He said he had been on hunger strike for 21 days when he spoke to the media, and described the protest as a peaceful sit-in.
According to the report, the case was transferred to the crime branch following the family’s demand. Wakode said the family had not received an update even after a month and alleged that the accused professor was called for a statement nearly two weeks after the incident. Senior police officers were not available for comment on the allegations.
The police case relates to the death of Sahil, a second-year IIT Bombay student, on September 18. The report does not provide details of the investigation’s current findings or indicate whether the allegations against the professor have been established. The accused’s response is also not included in the supplied report.
Wakode alleged that investigators had selectively shown CCTV footage and said there was no clarity about what happened during the one-hour period after Sahil left the examination hall. He also raised questions about an interaction in the head of the department’s room, including how many people were present and who spoke to the student. These remain allegations raised by the family and have not been independently established in the report.
The family’s advocate, Siddharth Ingle, said representations had been sent to the chief minister, the principal secretary of the home department, the social justice department and the director general of police. He said the family was awaiting responses and would file a writ petition if it did not receive relief. Ingle also said the family believed an internal report by the institute was likely to be biased, an allegation that has not been independently verified.
The planned court petition places the investigation and the handling of institutional records before the High Court if the family proceeds as announced. The next formal steps will depend on the responses from the authorities and the filing of the proposed writ petition. The police and IIT Bombay have not provided their positions in the material supplied for this report.
