Darshan Solanki died on the IIT Bombay campus on Sunday.
Mumbai:
An 18-year-old Dalit pupil at IIT Bombay, who died allegedly by suicide, had spoken to his sister and aunt about being ostracised by his associates due to his caste, the household has advised NDTV. While authorities at IIT Bombay have mentioned there was no discrimination on the campus, Darshan Solanki’s household claimed he did face persecution.
“When he came last month, he told me, and mom-dad, that there’s caste discrimination happening there. His friends came to know that he belongs to a scheduled caste, so their behaviour towards him changed. They stopped talking to him, they stopped hanging out with him,” his sister Jhanvi Solanki mentioned.
“He was in distress, he was being tortured. That’s why he did this,” his mom Tarlikaben Solanki mentioned.
Darshan’s aunt Divyaben mentioned, “One month ago when he came here, he was saying that many students don’t like that I am studying for free. People are jealous, they ask ‘why are you studying for free while we are spending a lot of money’. ‘Many students are jealous of me,’ he told me. He stopped speaking to some friends too.”
Rameshbhai Solanki, Darshan’s father, mentioned he spoke to his son simply hours earlier than his dying.
“Two hours before his suicide, we got a call from IIT. He was speaking normally, asking ‘how are you’. He called to wish my elder brother’s daughter a happy birthday. He said he will go out today. I sent some money to his account. He said, ‘I have money, I don’t need money’. He wasn’t spending much, but I still send some money. I had no idea that something like this could happen.
IIT Bombay has refuted charges that Darshan Solanki faced systemic discrimination and said his death is being probed.
“IIT Bombay strongly refutes claims in some information articles in regards to the tragic dying of a 1st 12 months BTech pupil, that suggest that the trigger was discrimination, and say it amounted to ‘institutional homicide’,” the tutorial institute mentioned in an announcement Tuesday.
Police registered a case of unintended dying after Darshan died, apparently after he jumped off the seventh flooring of the hostel constructing on Sunday. They have not discovered a suicide notice but, however a pupil group is alleging that he was pushed to suicide as a consequence of discrimination towards Dalit college students on the campus.
