Mumbai: Family questions suicide note of deceased IIT student Darshan Solanki

The alleged suicide of Darshan Solanki, a student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, took an unexpected turn when his father, sister, and aunt claimed that the handwriting on the suicide note "did not look like Darshan's."

Only his mother had previously stated that the handwriting looked like that of her son. Darshan allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the hostel where he was staying.

Powai police searched his hostel room but found no suicide note. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by joint police commissioner Lakhmi Gautam, which was later tasked with the investigation, discovered the suicide note on the last page of a sheaf of question-and-answer papers in which he blamed a fellow hosteler Arman Iqbal Khatri for his death.

The SIT found the papers right under the study table of Darshan. It is still a mystery how the Powai police did not find these papers. The name of Khatri removed the bottom from the allegation that Darshan was a victim of casteism. An internal probe ordered by the IIT management also did not come across the casteist angle.