IIT Bombay’s 10-member committee begins probe into student’s death
The 10-member high-power committee appointed by the Board of Governors (BoG) of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) started its inquiry into the death of a 20-year-old BTech student on the campus. The committee will examine all aspects of the incident, including the allegations made by the student’s parents regarding caste-based remarks.
The committee was appointed four days after the student’s death and has been asked to submit its report within a week. The panel started examining the circumstances surrounding the incident and will also look into the concerns raised by the student’s family.
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The committee is headed by Prof Ramesh Venkateswaran, chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT-Palakkad. It includes faculty members, students, an administrator, a former vigilance officer and a psychiatrist.
Among the IIT-Bombay faculty members on the panel are Prof K Narayanan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Sandip Kumar Saha from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Prof Deepti Kalsi from the Department of Chemistry. Prof Saha is also the convener of the institute’s SC/ST Students and Staff Cell.
Three students have also been included in the committee — Aditya Joshi, general secretary of hostel affairs, Dev Arora, overall coordinator of the Student Mentor Programme, and research scholar Devi Lal.
The other members are retired IAS officer Vishwanath Giriraj, former institute vigilance officer Prof K G Suresh from the Department of Physics and psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.
A senior institute official said the composition of the committee has been shared with the education ministry and its approval is awaited.
The inquiry will also look into the allegations made by the student’s parents, including their claim of caste-based remarks. The committee will examine the different aspects of the case before submitting its report to the institute.
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Meanwhile, questions continue over the role of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla in the events preceding the student’s death. Some professors have claimed that Doolla was asked to go on leave pending the inquiry. However, there was no official confirmation from the institute about his leave.
The development came as faculty bodies from several IITs, including IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati, expressed support for their counterparts at IIT Bombay and called for due process in the matter.
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