In the suicide case of an IIT Bombay student, wherein BTech student Sahil Wakode ended his life hours after being caught using ChatGPT during an exam, CCTV footage is reported to have emerged, showing Professor Suryanarayana Doolla asking Wakode to leave the examination hall. The CCTV footage from the 12:30 pm to 12:45 pm window shows that Professor Doolla did not humiliate Sahil Wakode, but only questioned him and took the student aside.
“There are CCTV cameras in the classrooms and lobbies in the IIT campus that have captured the incident which took place in the exam hall. Between 12.30 and 12.45 pm, just minutes before the paper was to end at 1 pm, it can be seen that the student in question is bending a bit and looking at something in his pocket. It can be seen in the footage that the professor is seen questioning him about the same. He later takes him to the side, away from other students,” The Indian Express quoted a source as saying.
The purported CCTV footage shows Sahil Wakode standing outside the examination hall till 1:25 pm. Thereafter, the student went to his hostel room, as seen in the CCTV footage from the lobby.
“After that, the child did not leave his room, and later it came to light that he had died by suicide,” the source added.
The Crime Branch has taken the CCTV camera footage and other relevant stuff from Wakode’s room after a search. The footage will be analysed to ascertain the facts of the matter.
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.
While a caste discrimination spin has been given to the tragedy now, not a single complaint was ever filed against Professor Doolla or Shireesh Kedare either with the administration or the SC/ST cell of IIT Bombay during Sahil’s tenure at the institute.
