Mumbai: Powai Police on Saturday registered a case over the alleged suicide of a 22-year-old student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in his hostel room after he was allegedly caught using his mobile phone during an examination. As per reports, the police booked IIT Bombay faculty member Suryanarayan Dulla over charges including caste discrimination and abetment to suicide.
Sahil Ravindra Wakode, a native of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, was found dead in his room in Hostel Number 4 on the Powai campus on Friday evening, an official said.
Wakode's mother alleged her son was tortured. "My son was killed, tortured. I want justice," she told reporters.
A case was registered at Powai police station under section 108 (abetment of suicide) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita along with relevant provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the complaint of his parents, the official said.
The deceased student's parents arrived in Mumbai from Yavatmal and claimed their son was subjected to institutional harassment and caste-based discrimination prior to his death, the official said. However, no suicide note was found from the spot, confirmed the officials.
The police had initially registered an Accidental Death Report in connection with the death.
Wakode was a second-year BTech student in the Energy Science and Engineering department.
According to a statement from IIT Bombay, the student had allegedly uploaded the examination question paper to ChatGPT to seek answers during the exam. The official said Wakode's death came to light after his hostel mates got no response from his room and alerted the authorities, who then informed the police.
The incident also triggered protests on campus, with students demanding an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death.
The institute, in a statement issued late on Friday, said that the student was found using a mobile phone in the exam hall earlier that day. But no disciplinary action was initiated against him, it stated.
The instructor and the Head of the Department had discussed the matter with the student and counselled him, assuring him the incident would not adversely affect his academic career.
He subsequently returned to his hostel room and was found dead later in the evening.
"The Institute is extending support to the student's friends, classmates, faculty members, and others affected by this tragic incident," the statement said.
The circumstances surrounding the death are being probed, it added.
The death is the third reported case of suicide at the IIT Bombay campus in Powai in seven months.
In February, a second-year student died by suicide in a hostel. In July 2026, at the beginning of the new semester, a 20-year-old second-year BTech student had also ended his life.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
