THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
We, the members of Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA) and our sister organizations, condemn the manner in which IIT Bombay, IIT Faculty forums and sections of the Indian media have treated the untimely demise of Sahil Wakode, a second-year B.Tech student from the Scheduled Caste community, who lost his life on 18 September 2026, hours after being pulled out of an examination. His family says he endured casteist remarks and harassment, and an FIR under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act names a member of IIT Bombay’s own faculty.
IIT Bombay did not wait for the truth. Within a day, the institute posted on X that Sahil had been caught using ChatGPT in his exam. An institution whose own faculty member was named in an FIR published its version of the conduct of the student, who could no longer answer for himself. We find this an act of extreme irresponsibility and insensitivity. That statement handed the media a headline and fueled online hate against the entire SC/ST community. And once again, as in case of Darshan Solanki, another Dalit who died by suicide in 2023, IIT Bombay points out that no complaint was made to its SC/ST Cell, using its students’ silence as an alibi instead of asking why students do not trust it.
The uncomfortable questions have been buried. The biggest point of reflection for the IIT Bombay administration should have been that the Institute has witnessed several student suicides this year. Students have repeatedly raised concerns about the high-handedness of faculty, the excessive and arbitrary exercise of authority, and the way students are allegedly subjected to humiliation and pressure. Academic reforms that could improve student welfare remain pending. Were examination procedures and guidelines properly followed in Sahil’s case? Until the CCTV footage from the Dean’s office and surrounding areas is released and is independently examined, these fundamental questions remain unanswered.
The questionable role of the media and the police. Exam-hall CCTV footage was leaked and circulated, with Sahil branded as “caught cheating.” Sahil cannot answer, and his family is forced to watch his last hour replayed for clicks. Evidence in a live investigation does not leak itself, yet neither the police nor IIT Bombay administration have told the public who released it, while reporters are giving judgements and passing comments that are questionable given that the investigation is still going on.
What followed the complaint needs no investigation. Whatever the inquiry finds about 18 September, the record since then is plain. IIT Bombay and its own SC/ST Cell, the body meant to protect Sahil, issued statements in the institution’s defense while the police inquiry had barely begun. The Faculty Forum issued a statement for, and marched on campus in support of, a colleague named in an FIR under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, three days after Sahil lost his life. And by accounts reaching us from the campus, SC/ST students were targeted and discriminated blatantly after his parents filed their complaint. That is not an allegation awaiting a chargesheet. It is discrimination in plain sight.
The narrative did not build itself. It was built by newsrooms owned and run overwhelmingly by the upper castes, and by an institution whose faculty is overwhelmingly upper caste, with SC, ST and OBC representation that is negligible. When the institution, the faculty body and the newsroom speak with one voice and the grieving family stands alone, “no evidence of caste discrimination” is not a finding. It is a reflex.
We have seen this before: Rohith Vemula, Payal Tadvi, Darshan Solanki, and now Sahil Wakode. The absence of a complaint is not the absence of discrimination.
We demand:
- IIT Bombay: issue statement and apologize to parents of Sahil Wakode and the entire SC/ST community for its statement, for the action of Faculty Forum and for the hate it fueled against Sahil and SC-ST students, retract its characterization of Sahil’s conduct, and place its inquiry under independent members, which includes SC/ST students, faculty and external experts in appropriate number.
- Maharashtra Government and Mumbai Police: identify and act against whoever leaked the footage; transfer the case to a time-bound Special Investigation Team that examines the caste-harassment allegations in full; and stop the off-record media briefings.
- All CCTV footage, not a leaked fragment: IIT Bombay and the police must immediately secure all footage from the corridors outside the examination hall and from the Dean’s office, where, according to accounts from witnesses who have asked not to be named, the alleged caste-based humiliation took place. This footage must be handed to the investigators and disclosed to Sahil’s family and their counsel, and witnesses who come forward must be protected.
- Central Government: fill every vacant reserved SC, ST and OBC faculty position in the IITs and other central institutions through a time-bound special recruitment drive. Students from these communities must see themselves in the people who teach, evaluate and mentor them; campuses without that representation will remain hostile to them. These posts lie vacant because selection committees drawn almost entirely from the upper castes reject qualified SC, ST and OBC candidates as “Not Found Suitable”, a device Parliament’s own Committee on the Welfare of SCs and STs has condemned as biased. Every such declaration must be reasoned in writing, reviewed by an independent panel with SC, ST and OBC members, and followed by re-advertisement, never by de-reservation or a vacant post. Also, conduct an audit of PhD admissions from SC-ST community made in the last 10 years across all the departments, across all the IITs and central government institutions, and assess the implementation of reservation during PhD admissions.
- NCSC, the Maharashtra SC/ST Commission, UGC and the Ministry of Education: take suo motu cognizance, monitor the investigation, and order a nationwide SC/ST audit of campuses.
Why do SC-ST students not complain?
A student who is humiliated for his caste on a campus where the faculty is overwhelmingly upper caste has every reason to stay silent: fear of the examiner who will grade him, of the department that will recommend him, of the hostel he must live in, and of a Cell that answers to the same administration. Silence on the record is not peace on the campus. Three years after Darshan Solanki, IIT Bombay offers no channel that a student like Sahil could trust, and it treats his silence as his failure rather than its own. That is why an internal committee cannot be trusted with the answer, and why we demand a nationwide audit: one that counts complaints and how they were disposed of, asks students anonymously what they face, conduct mental health based surveys, checks whether counsellors exist in the numbers the Supreme Court has directed, and publishes what it finds. We call on every Ambedkarite organisation, alumni association and student body in India and abroad to endorse these demands and to stand with Sahil’s family.
To the media: every outlet that ran the leaked unverified clip owes Sahil’s family along with the SC/ST community an apology. Readers and viewers will judge each outlet by whether it does so.
To the SC and ST students of IIT Bombay: you are not alone, and you are not on trial. Keep your own record of what you experience: record audio/video, take screenshots of messages and email, and write to us at [email protected] if you need help; we will protect your identity.
Rohith. Payal. Darshan. Sahil. We will not be silent, and we will not let an institution, a newsroom or a police briefing write the verdict before the truth is established.
Date: 26th September 2026
Ambedkar Association of North America- AANA
Ambedkar King Study Circle-AKSC
Ambedkarite Buddhist Association of Texas (ABAT)
Ambedkar International Center (AIC)
Ambedkar International Mission (AIM)
Boston study circle -BSG
Ambedkar Mission Toronto Canada
Equality Labs
Global NRIs Forum
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar International Mission Center- Houston
South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN)
Ambedkarite Buddhist Community of Canada (ABCC)
Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha Bay Area
Bhim international foundation
Chetna Association of Canada
International Buddhist Center
Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK
Ambedkar International Mission London
Dr Ambedkar Mission Society (Europe), Germany
Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) – India
Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) – Netherlands
Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) – Europe
