Mumbai: The parents of Sahil Wakode have moved Bombay High Court seeking a fair and independent investigation into his death by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Wakode was an IIT student who ended his life on September 18.
Sahil's parents have also filed an application before a special court assigned to hear cases under the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for a court-monitored investigation into his death.
The plea filed in the High Court by Ravindra and Sonali Wakode, through advocate Hitendra Gandhi, said their 20-year-old son had committed suicide after facing caste-based humiliation. The plea is likely to be mentioned on Monday.
Sahil Wakode, a second-year BTech student at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, died on September 18. His parents have alleged that some faculty members and the invigilator had made certain casteist remarks against Sahil, who then took the extreme step of killing himself.
The petition alleged that police had failed to probe the case with the seriousness it merits and, hence, sought the probe to be monitored by a retired judge. On their complaint, Powai police had earlier registered a case of abetment of suicide and other offences.
In the petition, the parents have also sought a direction to the institution to secure all CCTV footage of that day and to ensure no one influences any student or faculty who witnessed the events of the day their son killed himself.
In the plea in the High Court, the parents said Sahil, on being allotted a room at IIT, wished to hang a portrait of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar but was advised against it by his roommates, who told him he could face caste-based discrimination.
When Sahil informed his parents, they too advised him not to hang the photograph in order to avoid any conflict, the plea said.
It further alleged that Sahil had been facing caste-based remarks from Professor Surayanarayan Doolla, who was also the invigilator during the exam on September 18.
As per the application filed in the special court through advocate Siddharth Ingle, the institution, with malafide intentions, released to the media CCTV footage purportedly related to an examination incident, private telephone conversations, and details of an alleged apology letter written by Sahil after purportedly being caught cheating.
Several reports attributed the information about the written apology to unnamed "police sources", the application noted, claiming this was done to build a one-sided narrative and tarnish the deceased student's character.
It further claimed that during document verification, the police noted that one page of their son's answer booklet for the September 18 examination was missing.
The application sought immediate forensic preservation of the original answer booklet, a documented chain-of-custody inquiry, and verification of whether the missing page exists in the institute's backups or scans.
The applicant also sought to know whether the accused professor, Suryanarayan Doolla, had travelled abroad while the investigation was pending, and whether a Look Out Circular (LOC) or passport-related measures are warranted to secure his attendance.