IIT Bombay Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, At Centre Of Student's Suicide Row, Sent On Leave

IIT Bombay Professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who has been charged in the alleged suicide case of student Sahil Wakod, has been sent on leave, sources told NDTV on Wednesday.

A case on charges of abetment and caste discrimination was registered against Doolla. He was also removed as the dean of Administrative Affairs on Monday following protests by students over the suicide case.

Sahil Wakode, 22, a second-year B Tech student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, was found hanging in his hostel room on September 18 evening, hours after he was caught allegedly using a mobile phone to access ChatGPT during examination.

His mother, Sonali Wakode, has claimed that Sahil had told them that he was being tortured, abused, and humiliated based on his caste.

"He specifically told us that Professor Suryanarayana Doolla would say, 'I am from an upper caste and you are from a lower caste.' According to what Sahil told us, this had been continuing for around three months," she told reporters.

She said that when they met Sahil in his hostel room on September 13, he told them he was being tortured and subjected to abuse.

IIT Bombay Faculty Forum president Rajkumar Pant said that Sahil had not approached the institute's SC/ST cell with any complaint in the recent past.

Sahil's mother also objected to IIT Bombay's initial claim that he had been caught using ChatGPT during the mid-semester exam.

Anyone making cheating allegations must provide evidence, she said.

IIT Bombay Sorry For Statement On Student's Death

IIT Bombay on Monday had backtracked on its earlier statements, in which it claimed that Sahil cheated in an exam using ChatGPT.

"We apologise for the statements contained in our earlier communication concerning the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Sahil. The details and circumstances leading up to the incident remain subject to investigation by the appropriate authorities," the institute said in a new statement.

We apologise for the statements contained in our earlier communication concerning the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Sahil.

The details and circumstances leading up to the incident remain subject to investigation by the appropriate authorities. In view of…

— IIT Bombay (@iitbombay) September 21, 2026

"In view of the ongoing investigation, it was inappropriate to have set out or characterised details relating to the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established through the appropriate investigative process," it said.

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