Seven-hour standoff at Mumbai hospital ends with crime branch probe into IIT-B suicide

At Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, the boy’s parents refused to claim their son’s body until arrests were made.

Updated on: Sep 20, 2026, 08:25:59 IST

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The alleged suicide of the second-year BTech student at IIT-Bombay will be investigated by the Mumbai crime branch, a demand conceded by the police after a seven-hour standoff with the parents of the deceased at Rajawadi Hospital on Saturday.

In the first information report (FIR) filed today, the parents have named former dean of student affairs, Suryanarayan Dulla, the IIT-B’s director, and other senior officials, alleging caste discrimination and undue pressure on their son leading to his death. They have invoked Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Prof Dulla was a teacher of the deceased, a scheduled caste student, and the supervisor of the exam where the deceased was allegedly caught cheating on Friday, hours before he died by suicide.

At Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, the boy’s parents refused to claim their son’s body until arrests were made. For nearly seven hours, senior police officers spoke to them, finally backing down only after securing an assurance on a crime branch investigation. The officers they met were DCP Ganesh Shinde, DCP Dutta Nalawade, Additional Commissioner of Police, Dhananjay Kulkarni, and Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Manoj Sharma.

Among the demands accepted was the appointment of a committee by the Joint Commissioner of Police to be part of the investigation, opposition to anticipatory bail sought by the accused, challenging court orders favourable to the accused, and a speedy trial in a special court. Joint CP Manoj Sharma said he would appoint the committee concerned.

The deceased’s family said they had spent time with their son the previous weekend and he appeared relaxed. His mother said she had spoken to him for around 30 minutes on Thursday and he showed no signs of being distressed. His father called him around 5:00pm on Friday but received no response. Then the family received a call from the institute at 8:00pm informing them of his death. The parents also told police their son had mentioned caste discrimination and difficulties he was facing on campus.

This is the third suicide on the IIT-B campus thus year. In Friday’s instance, the deceased, from Yavatmal, had completed his schooling up to Class 10 there before moving to Nagpur to prepare for the JEE. He secured around 90% in the Class 10 and 76% in the Class 12 exams, and had secured a CGPA of 8.5 in his first year at IIT-Bombay. He loved sports and represented the institute in skating and badminton, according to his family.

The student was allegedly caught cheating in an exam on Friday, followed by a chat with some professors, according to IIT-B sources. A couple of hours later, he failed to respond to phone calls from classmates and his body was found in his hostel room.

IIT-B, in a statement, said, “The police have registered a case and the matter is under investigation. IIT Bombay will cooperate fully with the authorities.”

IIT-B director, Prof Shireesh Kedare, denied any caste-based discrimination on campus, whether in day-to-day functioning or in the administration’s or professors’ approach. “And there is absolutely none in this case. In fact, the caste-based information of every student is not available to anybody,” he said.

The institute’s SC/ST Students and Staff Cell said no complaint relating to caste-based discrimination had been lodged by the deceased student.

The Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), a student body at IIT-Bombay, on Saturday called for an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the BTech student, including the functioning of the Disciplinary Advisory Committee and the alleged role of the professor involved. It has also demanded the resignation of the IIT-B director and deans of student and academic affairs.

Meanwhile, Dhiraj Singh, an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur and founder of a support group for SC ST students across the IITs, said, “The latest death at IIT Bombay, the third in seven months, should not be treated as an isolated incident. Our compilation of RTI and media-reported data records 74 IIT student suicides/unnatural deaths from September 2021 to September 18, 2026, including 13 in 2026 so far. IIT-Bombay alone accounts for six deaths during this period.”

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