Darshan Solanki, a student at IIT Powai, committed suicide in February. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) determined that caste-based discrimination was one of the factors in Solanki's decision to take his own life. The SIT has also found a suicide note in which he named one of his co-student for harassing and threatening him.
According to sources, the suicide note was discovered in his room after the SIT took over the investigation. "Arman has killed me," says the suicide note.
Officials have identified a classmate named Arman Iqbal Khatri as the one harassing and threatening him, and they have discovered some WhatsApp chats between the two. "We suspect something happened that day, and he (the deceased) wrote a suicide note before jumping from the seventh floor," an officer said.
"Registration of an offence under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Atrocities Act is underway," the officer added.
Darshan, who was in his first year of studies, died on February 12, a day after completing his semester exam. Initially, it was suggested that he ended his life due to poor academic performance. However, Darshan's family and some groups at IIT Powai claimed that he had been a victim of severe caste-based discrimination within the campus, and he had shared this with his sister before his death.
Following the outrage expressed by families and other groups, the state government established a Special Investigations Team led by a joint commissioner for t crime.