Nearly two months after Darshan Solanki, a Dalit student of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay jumped to death, the Mumbai Police has arrested a fellow student on charges of abetment to suicide.
The arrested student was identified as Arman Khatri, the hostel mate of the victim.
Khatri was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police on Sunday.
On 12 February, 2023, Darshan (18) is reported to have jumped from the seventh floor of his hostel building and his body was found by the security guards who saw him in a pool of blood at the IIT-Bombay Powai campus. Darshan from Ahmedabad, belonging to the SC community, was a first-year student of the B.Tech (Chemical) course.
Darshan came from a humble background - his father Rameshbhai Solanki works as a plumber while his mother Tarlikaben Solanki is a domestic worker. His sister Jhanvi Solanki is a final-year MCA student.
On 26 March, the SIT found a suicide note inside the hostel room of the deceased student - which has given a new direction to the investigation.
Initially after the incident, the Powai police station registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR). However, after the suicide note was found, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered under the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
In the suicide note, Darshan has blamed Khatri.
The Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) of IIT-Bombay was the first to raise the issue of Darshan’s death as a case of caste discrimination and called it “institutional murder” - a charge which was denied by the institute.