IIT Bombay Suicide Case: Dissatisfied with investigation, Darshan’s father writes letter to SIT

Rameshbhai Solanki, whose son Darshan had jumped to death from IIT-Bombay building, has written a letter addressed to the members of the SIT (Special Investigation Team) calling for probing the angles of caste-based discrimination against his son. He has accused the SIT of sidelining the incidence of caste discrimination in the investigation of the death of his son.

In the letter, Ramesh revealed, "My daughter, Janvi Solanki, stumbled upon Darshan's social media accounts. She came across his chat with an account called 'Sam Rajput' on Instagram. On 7th February 2023, just a few days before Darshan's death, Sam Rajput had asked Darshan for his IIT-JEE rank. Darshan told him his JEE rank and conceded that a candidate with a rank that low wouldn't have gotten admission in IIT-B in the general category." The letter further says that Darshan said that since his category was revealed to Sam Rajput, he would 'also' not like Darshan anymore.

Speaking to The Mooknayak, Ramesh said that the SIT is not probing the caste-based discrimination that happened to his son. He also cast doubt on the suicide note recovered, which had the name of Arman Khatri written on it, saying "SIT has recovered it, and not us. My daughter and I have also not been able to identify the handwriting." Ramesh emphasizes that his son had never taken the name of Arman but had always maintained that he was subjected to caste-based discrimination. Arman Khatri cannot be the only person responsible for the death of his son. He also suggests that IITs should take steps to ensure that there is no caste-based discrimination on their campuses.

The SIT Probe

The Special Investigation Team that took over the case on 28th February recovered a suicide note apparently written by Darshan, in which he had blamed his classmate Arman Khatri for torturing him. Khatri was arrested by the police on Monday and sent to police custody.