Amid mounting student protests following the death by suicide of 20-year-old BTech student Sahil Wakode, IIT Bombay on Monday suspended the deanship of Prof Suryanarayana Doolla with immediate effect. But the move failed to satisfy protesting students, who said they had sought his suspension as a professor and not merely his removal from an administrative position.

The decision was communicated to students in an email by IIT-Bombay Director Prof Shireesh Kedare at noon on Monday. The institute has not issued a separate statement on the suspension.

“The Deanship of Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla is suspended with immediate effect. Any further action will be taken after investigation,” Prof Kedare said in the email.

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Doolla, who was earlier Dean of Students Affairs at IIT-Bombay, is currently Dean of Administrative Affairs. He was invigilating the examination taken by Sahil and has been named in the FIR registered by Mumbai Police based on a complaint by Sahil’s parents, who have alleged that their son was subjected to caste-based discrimination by him.

The “immediate suspension” of Doolla was among the 18 demands submitted by protesting students to the institute administration on Sunday, following three days of protests on campus. The charter was handed over to Prof Kedare during a nearly three-hour meeting with protesting students at the institute’s main gate late Sunday night.

Prof Kedare signed the charter and assured students that the institute would work towards fulfilling their demands. The Board of Governors was scheduled to discuss the demands on Monday, with the administration expected to communicate its decisions to students at an open house later in the day.

Meanwhile, IIT-Bombay on Monday also issued an apology for statements made in its earlier communication regarding Sahil’s death, meeting another key demand of the protesting students.

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In a post on X, the institute said: “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 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.”

The students had also demanded an independent investigation into the circumstances leading to Sahil’s death and an apology for what they described as his “defamation”.

They argued that proceedings before the disciplinary action committee should have remained confidential until a conclusion was reached. The administration, however, had in its initial communication referred to Sahil’s alleged use of an AI platform during an examination.

“Putting out an allegation against a student who is not even here to defend himself amounts to defamation,” a protesting student had said.