IITB student suicide: Probe transferred to Crime Branch as kin allege foul play

The ongoing investigation into the suicide of an 18yearold IIT Bombay student who jumped to her death from her hostels seventh floor on February 12 was transferred to Special Investigation Team SIT Mumbai Crime Branch on MondayThe probe will be led by Lakhmi Gautam joint commissioner of police Mumbai Crime Branch Deputy Commissioner of Police Crime Branch Krishnakant Upadhyay and Assistant Commissioner of Police Jai Prakash Bhosale are also part of the team Mumbai Police saidThe suicide case of an 18yearold student of IIT Bombay transferred to SIT Crime Branch Jt Commissioner of Police crime Lakhmi Gautam to lead the team The student had jumped off the 7th floor of his hostel earlier this month His family had alleged castebased harassment Mumbai Police said in a statementOn February 12 the student identified as 18yearold Darshan Solanki jumped to his death from the seventh floor of his hostelPowai police registered an Accidental Death Report ADR in the matter and launched further investigationAlso Read Mumbai IIT Bombay launches parallel probe in student death caseHailing from Ahmedabad Darshan was pursuing BTech at the IIT Bombay in MumbaiAs soon as the information about the suicide was received the police reached the spot and took him to the hospital where the doctors declared him deadOn February 13 Darshans family claimed that he faced caste discrimination at IIT Bombay and they suspected some foul play behind his death Later his family demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team SITOn the day Darshan died IIT Bombay issued a statement strongly refuting news reports that said the firstyear BTech student was subjected to caste discriminationIt is wrong to make such accusations when the police are still investigating the case Based on initial inputs from friends there is no indication that the student faced any such discrimination We request that such unfounded allegations not be spread the institute said in the statementSolanki Darshans father speaking to ANI claimed that his son could not have taken his own lifeHe must have been harassed and I fear that he was killed he addedHe alleged that darshan had complained about caste discrimination but no one paid heedDarshans sister Jahnvi also said the family is 100 per cent sure that he was murderedFirst they told us that Darshan met with an accident When our relatives reached Mumbai they were told that he fell down the stairs Later we were told that he jumped off the 7th floor of his hostel How can there be three different versions on his death Jahnvi saidShe said some students might have hit him on the head which resulted in his deathWe are 100 per cent sure he was murdered she said claiming that the police and the IIT Bombay management were making up a suicide story to shield the culpritsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever