The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay took significant administrative action on Monday, 21st September, in connection with the death of second-year B.Tech student Sahil Wakode. The institute officially stripped Professor Suryanarayana Doolla of his deanship with immediate effect. Professor Shireesh B. Kedare, the Director of IIT Bombay, confirmed the measure, explaining that any further punitive or institutional steps against the faculty member will depend entirely on the findings of an exhaustive inquiry.

At the same time, the legal probe into the student's death has moved beyond local station limits, with the investigation officially transferred to the Mumbai Crime Branch. Crime Branch investigators are currently performing forensic examinations on Sahil's smartphone to retrieve any unrecovered digital footprints, messages, or drafts that might function as a suicide note.

What originally began as a campus incident—where a student died by suicide shortly after being accused of using unfair means in a mid-semester examination—has rapidly escalated into a fierce institutional dispute centered on allegations of systemic caste-based prejudice. Sahil's parents have stepped forward publicly, alleging that their son was subjected to continuous caste harassment on campus grounds. Backing these assertions with formal legal demands, the family is seeking official financial and administrative compensation under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

As the Mumbai Crime Branch steps in to review every stage of the incident, and with IIT Bombay formally retracting several of its initial narrative releases regarding what took place, the precise sequence of events leading to Sahil Wakode's passing remains the focus of active investigation.

18th September: Sahil Dies Following Allegations of ChatGPT Use During Examination

The crisis began on the morning of Friday, 18th September 2026, when Sahil Wakode, an enrolled undergraduate in his second year in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, died by suicide. His death occurred only a few hours after he had been intercepted during an ongoing mid-semester test for allegedly using unauthorized materials.

Early accounts shared by fellow classmates suggested that Sahil was initially reprimanded for leaning over to view another candidate's paper. Immediately after this observation, Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who was on active invigilation duty inside the examination hall, instructed him to leave the room. Several students on the premises alleged that administrative staff later cautioned Sahil that his actions would invite stringent disciplinary proceedings, up to and including formal academic suspension.

The IIT Bombay central administration quickly issued an official release disputing this specific narrative. In their version of events, Sahil had brought an active smartphone into the examination room. The administration asserted that he used the device to capture images of the test paper, which were then uploaded directly to ChatGPT to generate live solutions.

Institutional spokespersons adamantly maintained that no punitive action had been initiated against the student at that point. They stated that following the incident in the hall, both the course instructor and the Head of the Department called Sahil in for a personal counseling session. During that discussion, according to the administration, the senior faculty assured the young student that whatever institutional process followed would not ruin or derail his larger academic path.

After this counseling meeting concluded, Sahil went back to his assigned hostel room. Later that evening, he was discovered unresponsive. The institute later published an official message of condolence, stating: “IIT Bombay is deeply saddened by the loss of a student. The Institute is extending support to the student’s friends, classmates, faculty members, and others affected by this tragic incident.”

19th September: Family Alleges Systematic Caste Bias and Submits Formal Demands

By Saturday morning, 19th September, the news of Sahil's passing had spread through the hostels, setting off immediate campus-wide demonstrations. Crowds of students gathered to challenge how senior management intervened during the cheating accusation, raising fundamental questions about how the university handles vulnerable undergraduates experiencing sudden academic stress. Protesters insisted that officials had explicitly threatened Sahil with suspension immediately following the exam, rejecting the administration's claims of an empathetic counseling intervention.

Early on Saturday, Sahil's parents arrived outside the IIT Bombay main entrance gate in Powai to seek answers. Accompanied by members of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC)—an active student collective on campus—the family released a video in which they directly held the leadership of the institute accountable for their son's death.

Sahil's father firmly dismissed the theory that his son had taken his own life solely because of an examination dispute, stating: “This is a case of caste discrimination. We took efforts to put our son in this institute, which has failed us. It is because of their torture that we have lost our only child. We demand justice. We will raise our complaint to the national capital.”

As Saturday evening approached, the demonstrations grew larger. Protesters massed on the central campus avenues, calling for the immediate resignations of both Director Shireesh Kedare and Professor Suryanarayana Doolla. In an attempt to address the escalating anger, Director Kedare scheduled an emergency, late-night open-house forum inside the institute's Convocation Hall. Throughout this tense session, students raised grievances that extended far beyond the immediate events of the previous day, focusing heavily on the absence of voting student delegates on executive policy councils.

Later that same day, local police acted on a written complaint lodged by Sahil's father, officially booking Professor Doolla and other unnamed personnel. The First Information Report incorporated charges of abetment of suicide under the Indian Penal Code, alongside stringent sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The family maintained that Sahil had repeatedly confided in them about feeling marginalized and singled out on campus because of his social background.

In his deposition to the investigating police officers, Ravindra Wakode, Sahil's father, alleged that Professor Doolla had systematically harassed his son with derogatory caste remarks over a three-month span, claiming these actions occurred under instructions from Director Shireesh Kedare.

The formal complaint filed by the father stated: “He had come to the college on his own merit, and everything went fine in the First Year. Things changed in the Second Year when the Director, Shireesh B Kedare, instructed faculty member Suryanarayana Doolla to do caste-based discrimination… Doolla was passing casteist remarks for the past three months and had threatened to implicate him in a wrong manner before the incident took place.”

Advocate Nikhil Kamble, the legal counsel representing the Wakode family, detailed their conditions to reporters on the same day, stating: “Our main demands include the appointment of a Crime Branch team, allowing the victim’s father and five to seven representatives to monitor the investigation, and having the entire investigation supervised by the Joint Commissioner. In case the accused seek anticipatory bail, a Special Public Prosecutor will be appointed to represent the state. Three lawyers suggested by the victim’s father will oppose the bail plea in the High Court. In addition, compensation under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act will be provided at the earliest…”

20th September: Administration Rebuts Allegations as Director Signs 18-Point Charter

On Sunday, 20th September, the allegations of institutional caste prejudice became the subject of intense national debate. Director Shireesh Kedare publicly refuted the accusations, maintaining that the institute operates with strict neutrality. Addressing the allegations, he stated: “And there is absolutely none in this case. In fact, caste-based information of every student is completely hidden and not available for anybody’s information.” Concurrent with this statement, the internal SC/ST Students and Staff Cell at IIT Bombay confirmed that Sahil had not previously filed any formal complaints of caste-based prejudice with their office or the central administrative registry.

Throughout Sunday, Sahil’s grieving parents initially declined to take custody of his body from the mortuary, insisting that primary legal and administrative conditions be fulfilled first. They agreed to proceed with the last rites only after Manoj Kumar Sharma, Mumbai’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), personally visited and informed them that the case had been formally assigned to the specialized Crime Branch unit.

As claims of caste bias circulated across digital channels, political groups and social commentators engaged heavily with the case. Several Ambedkarite associations and online observers argued that students from marginalized backgrounds regularly face quiet hostility from General category faculty and peers across elite engineering campuses, pushing students into deep psychological distress. Many of these groups leveraged the public attention surrounding Sahil’s death to call for the immediate, nationwide implementation of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) equity guidelines across higher education institutions.

Conversely, the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum came forward to offer unified backing for their colleague. In an official release issued on Sunday, 20th September, under the signature of Forum President Professor Rajkumar S. Pant, the faculty association expressed sorrow over the death while affirming their complete support for Professor Doolla’s classroom intervention:

“The Faculty Forum of IIT Bombay mourns the loss of life of a student of our institute, and offers deepest condolences to his family. We strongly express our solidarity with our colleague Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla, who was discharging his duties in line with the institute’s Senate-approved academic policy currently in force.”

Despite the faculty's collective statement, student demonstrators maintained their sit-in outside the main gate, bringing administrative functioning to an impasse on Sunday night. Seeking to de-escalate the standoff after three straight days of agitation, the senior leadership convened an extended negotiation session with student representatives. The meeting concluded with Director Shireesh Kedare formally signing and accepting an 18-point charter of demands presented by the student body:

• Action against stakeholders: The immediate suspension of Professor Suryanarayana Doolla from his administrative portfolio, alongside the removal of any administrative staff found culpable following an impartial probe.
• Public apology: The issuance of an unreserved institutional apology from IIT Bombay for publishing unverified, potentially defamatory facts about Sahil on LinkedIn following his death.
• Open House: A commitment to host an all-campus Open House session before 22nd September, mandating the physical presence of the Director, academic deans, and senior administrators to directly field questions from the student community.
• Accountability of officials: A structural clause demanding the formal resignations of the Director, the Dean of Academic Programmes (AP), and the Dean of Student Affairs (SA) if the commitments outlined in the charter are not fulfilled within thirty days, monitored by weekly status reports.
• Independent probe: The creation of an external, independent investigative body to review the circumstances of Sahil’s death and assess the campus hospital's medical response, mandating an interim evaluation by 30th September and a final public dossier by 15th October.
• Financial support: The disbursement of immediate monetary compensation alongside continuous institutional welfare arrangements for the surviving families of four IIT Bombay students lost in recent years.
• Student representation: The immediate granting of voting rights and equitable representative seats for student delegates across key academic and operational administrative bodies, entirely free from administrative veto powers.
• Review of decisions: A comprehensive review and retrospective appraisal of all unilateral policies impacting student life enacted without prior open-house deliberations.
• Professor code of conduct: The creation of a dedicated task force charged with establishing formal faculty codes of conduct, clear complaint workflows, and strict resolution timelines for student grievances against instructional staff.
• Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) cases: The compulsory inclusion of peer companions, student mentors, and complete procedural documentation whenever a student faces accusations of academic malpractice.
• Counselling services: A structural upgrade in mental healthcare staffing to achieve a ratio of one certified counselor per 250 enrolled students, guaranteeing at least one counselor stationed inside every hostel, backed by routine independent audits of the Student Wellness Centre.
• 24/7 mental health support: The introduction of round-the-clock on-call psychiatric access, certified medical doctors for overnight shifts, mandatory psychological first-aid workshops for administrative staff, and a transparent student feedback portal.
• Faculty sensitisation: Mandatory bi-monthly workshops on student mental health, inclusive communication, and anti-bias practices for all instructional staff, with specialized training built into the onboarding process for new hires.
• Accessibility of Dean SA: A binding schedule requiring the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs to reserve a minimum of 20 hours each week for drop-in student visits, accompanied by a rule requiring written responses to inquiries within 18 hours.
• Hostel wing support: The operational policy of allocating contiguous wing rooms to second- and third-year students so that peer friendship groups and support systems are preserved across terms.
• Student concerns portal: The rollout of an accessible, centralized portal that tracks every submitted grievance and publicizes the specific administrative action taken to resolve it.
• Student well-being task force: The formation of an institutional wellness committee composed of student leaders, faculty members, and external clinical experts tasked with studying campus stress patterns and releasing semesterly public reports.
• Protection of protesters: A signed guarantee ensuring that no student participating in peaceful campus rallies will be subjected to disciplinary action, academic reprimands, hostel eviction, or legal retaliation.

21st September: Dean Suspended as Institute Issues Apology for Premature Statements

On Monday, 21st September, facing the weight of ongoing sit-ins and student assemblies, the administration made its first major concession. Director Shireesh Kedare circulated an email to the entire campus body announcing that Professor Suryanarayana Doolla had been relieved of his executive administrative duties.

The brief official communication stated: “The Deanship of Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla is suspended with immediate effect. Any further action will be taken after investigation.”

Prior to this decision, Professor Doolla had held the post of Dean of Student Affairs, and was serving as the Dean of Administrative Affairs when the exam incident took place. While the student charter had pressed for his total suspension from teaching duties as well, the administration limited its order to his administrative deanship, pending the conclusions of the Crime Branch investigation and internal proceedings.

Simultaneously, the administration issued a formal institutional retraction, walking back its earlier public statements regarding the incident. Senior leadership conceded that it was inappropriate to publicize unverified claims accusing Sahil of digital cheating before a complete inquiry had concluded.

In its official statement, the institute wrote: “We apologise for the statements contained in our earlier communication concerning the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Sahil. The details and circumstances leading up to the incident remain subject to investigation by the appropriate authorities. In view of the ongoing investigation, it was inappropriate to have set out or characterised details relating to the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established through the appropriate investigative process.”

Amid widespread online claims that Director Shireesh Kedare had tendered his resignation during the weekend's protests, the institute issued an official clarification confirming that the Director continues in his role. IIT Bombay reiterated that it is cooperating fully with the Crime Branch officers handling the inquiry. At the same time, an alternative viewpoint has surfaced across social media platforms, with several IIT Bombay alumni and current students expressing vocal support for Professor Doolla, arguing that an academic invigilator should not face public condemnation for acting against exam malpractice under the pretext of unproven discrimination claims.