Dean Suspended, Institute Apologizes as Protests Erupt Over Sahil Wakode's Death

• by Akanksha Mishra
• 2026-09-21 14:39:00

High tension has gripped the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay campus in Powai following the heartbreaking suicide of 22-year-old undergraduate student Sahil Ravindra Wakode, prompting the administration to tender an official institutional apology and immediately suspend Dean of Student Affairs Professor Suryanarayan Dulla from his administrative post. The dramatic escalation unfolded after hundreds of students launched a massive agitation at the institute's main gates on September 20, leading IIT Bombay Director Professor Shirish B. Kedare to intervene directly and engage in marathon three-hour negotiations with the demonstrators. While Kedare announced his intention to resign amid mounting accountability calls, the institute formally expressed deep regret over the misrepresentation of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and confirmed that further disciplinary proceedings will follow an exhaustive inquiry.

Cheating Allegation, Institutional Pressure, and Crime Branch Probe

Sahil Wakode, a native of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district and a second-year BTech student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was found hanging from a ceiling fan inside his hostel room on the Powai campus on Friday evening. The tragic event occurred just hours after he was allegedly caught in possession of a mobile phone and accused of uploading question papers to ChatGPT during a mid-semester examination. However, Sahil’s grieving family and fellow student bodies strongly dispute the institutional narrative, alleging that the young scholar was pushed to the brink by systemic institutional harassment, intimidation, and caste-based discrimination. Acting on a formal complaint lodged by his parents, police registered an FIR under charges of abetment to suicide alongside stringent sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against a professor, with city authorities formally transferring the sensitive investigation to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch.

Administration Accedes to 18 Demands as Hostels Dismantle Ceiling Fans

Faced with escalating campus outrage, the IIT Bombay administration capitulated to all 18 demands tabled by the student collective, which included the immediate removal of the Dean, the establishment of an independent, impartial investigation committee, a public apology, and comprehensive financial compensation for the bereaved family. Defending its earlier actions, the institute maintained that faculty members had initially counseled Sahil to assure him his academic career would not be derailed, a stance supported by the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum, which stated the accused faculty was merely discharging duties per Senate-approved guidelines. Marking the third student suicide on the Powai campus in 2026 alone, the administration has expedited safety overhauls across its residential dormitories, immediately ordering the removal of ceiling fans in favor of wall-mounted alternatives, with the initial consignment of replacement units already arriving on campus.

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