After a caste discrimination spin was given to the suicide of an IIT Bombay BTech second-year student, Sahil Wakode, self-declared Ambedkarites and social justice warriors are building a false narrative that somehow students belonging to SC/ST communities face widespread caste discrimination and harassment across IITs. In this pursuit, an ‘Ambedkarite’ Suraj Kumar Bauddh has claimed that IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki, who committed suicide in 2023, faced caste harassment.
In an X post published on 23rd September, Suraj Kumar Bauddh claimed that ‘Savarna’ faculty at India’s premier tech institutes are “killing” Dalit students. To back his claim, Bauddh alleged that IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki, who died by suicide in February 2023, committed suicide due to ‘caste harassment’.
“Savarna faculty kills Dalit students. 3 years ago, in 2023, IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki (SC) was driven to suicide after facing constant caste harassment. Today, his father joined the protest at IIT Bombay demanding justice for Sahil Wakode,” Bauddh wrote.
Bauddh also shared a video of Solanki’s father interacting with an AajTak reporter, wherein he said that Solanki was facing pressure from his roommate, and his requests for changing his room were denied, forcing Darshan Solanki to take the extreme step.
Savarna faculty kills Dalit students. 💔
— Suraj Kumar Bauddh (@SurajKrBauddh) September 23, 2026
3 years ago, in 2023, IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki (SC) was driven to suicide after facing constant caste harassment.
Today, his father joined the protest at IIT Bombay demanding justice for Sahil Wakode. pic.twitter.com/h98bCSYdBk
When asked whether any of Darshan Solanki’s friends or batchmates ever spoke to him about the prevalence of caste-based prejudices and discrimination in IIT Bombay, Solanki’s father said that he is not in touch with students and whatever he knows is only through media reports. Solanki’s father has expressed solidarity with Sahil Wakode’s parents; however, he did not claim that Darshan Solanki faced caste-based discrimination or pressure.
Suraj Kumar Bauddh is not alone in pushing a false narrative around Darshan Solanki’s suicide; many self-styled social justice champions are amplifying the same lies.
Did Savarna faculty kill Darshan Solanki? No, a Muslim student abetted his suicide
On 12th February 2023, an IIT Bombay student named Darshan Solanki took his own life. He was a Hindu Dalit who hailed from Ahmedabad city in Gujarat.
Solanki jumped to his death from the 7th floor of his hostel building. It had only been a day since the semester exams ended. Solanki had even called his mother before committing suicide and discussed plans about having a family get-together on 14th February that year.
Soon after the incident, speculations began about the cause of Darshan Solanki’s untimely death. A notorious organisation on campus named ‘Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC)’ alleged that the victim took his own life due to ‘caste discrimination.’
Caste-baiters like ‘Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC)’ and leftist propaganda outlets like Newslaundry exploited Solanki’s death for their own ‘caste discrimination’ agenda, even as the institute’s administration ruled out caste discrimination allegations.
In March 2023, an internal committee commissioned by the IIT-B found “no specific evidence of direct caste-based discrimination” resulting in the death of Darshan Solanki. The panel also alluded to his “deteriorating academic performance” as a possible reason for taking his life.
Despite this, caste politics players declared that the victim died due to ‘caste discrimination.’ This was prior to the conclusion of the internal investigation by IIT-B and the Powai police in Mumbai.
The whole leftist coterie, however, went silent as soon as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police arrested a 19-year-old batchmate of Darshan Solanki named Arman Iqbal Khatri and found a suicide note, in which the deceased Hindu Dalit blamed his Muslim batchmate for his decision to end his life.
The SIT had recovered a suicide note from Solanki’s room that read, “Arman has killed me.” During the inquiry, the investigators discovered that harassment by Arman might have forced the victim to end his life. Handwriting experts had confirmed that the suicide note was indeed written by Darshan Solanki.
It later emerged that Arman Malik and Solanki stayed on the same floor of the IIT-B hostel. A day before his suicide, the victim had confided in another student that he felt threatened by Arman.
Arman Iqbal Khatri was arrested and was booked under IPC Sections 306 and 506 (2) and relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (SC/ST Act).
In April 2026, a special court framed charges against Arman Iqbal for criminal intimidation and abetment of suicide.
Darshan Solanki then Sahil Wakode now: For self-declared social justice warriors, the suicide of students who happen to be Dalits is a mere tool for ideological agenda
From the 2016 Rohith Vemula case, the 2023 Darshan Solanki case to the recent Sahil Wakode suicide, Leftists and caste-baiters have long been giving a caste discrimination spin to student suicides driven by non-caste atrocity reasons merely because the deceased happened to be a Dalit. In fact, in Rohith Vemula’s case, it later turned out that the deceased did not even belong to the SC category, let alone face caste discrimination.
In Vemula’s case, the Telangana Police’s closure report stated that the PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, Rohith Vemula, committed suicide because “he had his own problems and was not happy with worldly affairs. If he would have been angry with the decision of the University, certainly either he would have written in specific words or would have indicated in this regard. But he did not do the same. It shows that the circumstances prevailing in the university at the time were not the reason for Rohith’s death.”
Despite this, Vemula was made a symbol of ‘upper caste’ disdain and vengeance against Dalits; anti-caste discrimination laws have been proposed in his name, seminars are held in his name, and the politics continues.
Now efforts are on to turn Sahil Wakode into another Rohith Vemula. Sahil Wakode, a 2nd-year BTech student at IIT Bombay, took his own life on Friday (18th September) after being caught red-handed by Professor Suryanarayana Doolla. He later committed suicide in his hostel room.
Thereafter, protests emerged on the campus of the institute, demanding action against the esteemed faculty member. A day later, on Saturday (19th September), Sahil’s parents alleged that Professor Doolla had been mentally harassing and using casteist slurs against their son for 3 months at the behest of IIT Bombay’s Director Shireesh Kedare.
One of the key demands of Wakode’s father, Ravindra, is the immediate release of financial compensation under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995.
While Wakode’s death has been framed as caste discrimination, not a single complaint was ever filed against Professor Doolla or Shireesh Kedare with either the administration or the SC/ST cell of IIT Bombay during Sahil’s tenure at the institute.
The emergence of the CCTV footage showing Wakode using a mobile phone during the exam has punctured the ‘caste atrocity’ bogey and claims that the deceased student was not cheating. Despite being allegedly caught cheating, no disciplinary action was initiated against Wakode, and he was counselled.
Undeniable proof in the Sahil Wankode suicide case.
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) September 23, 2026
Another CCTV footage emerges where he seems to have been caught with a phone, cheating in exams. He then hands over the phone to the invigilator. pic.twitter.com/Vf7if3vB4B
Even as caste discrimination claims in all three cases, be it Rohith Vemula, Darshan Solanki and Sahil Wakode, lack concrete factual basis, self-declared social justice champions are peddling propaganda to establish an apocryphal narrative that Dalit students are being pushed to suicide by ‘Savarna’ faculty at top colleges.
Contrary to the pushed narrative, the comprehensive data presented by the Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha in March 2023 shows that, out of the total 61 student suicides, General-category students accounted for 30 cases (17 in IITs, 10 in NITs, and 3 in IIMs). On the other hand, OBC students accounted for 18 deaths, SC students accounted for 10, ST students accounted for 2, and the remaining 1 was recorded under the EWS category.
While the possibility of caste discrimination playing a role in individual suicide cases cannot be outrightly dismissed, the floated claims that ‘Savarna faculty kills Dalit students’ as if there is a broader pattern are devoid of factual merit and driven purely by an agenda against individuals belonging to the general category.
