Twenty-one IIT-Bombay faculty members have condemned the detention of protesting students on the institute campus and sought an explanation from the director over who authorised the police action, the alleged use of force and the removal of the protest site.
The letter, sent on Monday, followed two rounds of detention at the campus protest site known as Justice Corner on Sunday. Students have been protesting for more than a month after the death by suicide of second-year BTech student Sahil Wakode on September 18. They have been demanding action and accountability from the institute.
According to the faculty members, the students had been protesting peacefully when police entered the campus and detained them. The letter asks whether any institute official authorised the police presence and, if not, whether the administration intends to seek a first information report against the officers responsible for what the faculty described as an “act of violence”.
The faculty members also questioned whether institute officials intervened when detained students allegedly sought help. They said the students tried to contact the dean of student affairs, the Quick Response Team and the chief security officer from the police station, but that their requests were not addressed and no institute functionary came to the station.
The letter raised additional questions about the alleged dismantling of the protest site, including the removal of banners and posters displaying images of Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule and Dr B R Ambedkar. Faculty members also sought an explanation for the alleged seizure of students’ personal belongings, including laptops, and asked whether the institute had followed due procedure.
Sahil Wakode’s parents, Ravindra and Sonali Wakode, also alleged that they were forcibly taken to Azad Maidan police station and detained until 6pm after visiting IIT-Bombay to pay homage to their son. The allegations have not been independently established in the report.
The faculty letter acknowledged that members of the institute hold differing views on the protest. Some consider it irrelevant or damaging to IIT-Bombay’s reputation, while others view it as a necessary demand for the institute to examine its educational responsibilities against the backdrop of its history of student suicides. The faculty members nevertheless condemned the forceful removal of students who had been protesting for several weeks.
IIT-Bombay authorities did not comment on the faculty letter, according to the report. Sources cited in the report claimed that police had come to the campus because Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad planned to visit. The institute had not responded to the MP’s request for permission, and her proposed visit coincided with the arrival of Wakode’s parents. The sources also claimed that students jeering at police shortly before the expected visits prompted the detentions.
On the belongings, the sources said the items had been left near the gate and were obstructing the entrance. They added that the institute planned to return them to students under its lost-and-found standard operating procedure. The faculty members’ questions now place the institute’s handling of the protest, police access to the campus and student assistance during detention at the centre of the dispute.
