Session court grants bail to accused in IIT Bombay student suicide case

MUMBAI: The Sessions Court for Greater Bombay on Wednesday granted bail to the accused student Arman Iqbal Khatri involved in the IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki suicide case. While granting the bail to accused student Armaan Khatri, the local court remarked that there is no evidence of abetment to suicide against the accused in the case.

The court in its ten-page order has observed that no evidence of caste discrimination and harassment was found against the accused in the Darshan Solanki suicide case to show that the applicant/accused was harassing the deceased on the basis of caste discrimination. In the suicide note, apart from the name of the applicant/accused, there is no reference to any act or event under which the applicant is alleged to have willfully omitted or knowingly aided or abetted the deceased to commit suicide, the court in its order mentioned.

There is nothing on record to show that the applicant/accused had abetted the deceased Darshan to commit suicide, except for one incident of the accused showing the paper cutter to the dead Darshan, the court observed. Darshan Solanki allegedly committed suicide at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai by jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building located on the campus on February 12 this year, a day after his semester exams ended.

In the aftermath of the incident, Solanki's family alleged foul play in his death and claimed that he faced discrimination at the IIT Bombay for belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community. Following complaints from the members of the family a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Mumbai Crime Branch police probing the suicide of an 18-year-old IIT-Bombay student, arrested a student of the same institute in connection to the case.

A case was also registered under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Solanki was originally from Ahmedabad and was pursuing B Tech at IIT Bombay.

Darshan's father, Ramesh Solanki, further requested the authorities to take action against the police. Following demands for a detailed probe by his parents, on February 28, the case was transferred to the city crime branch SIT.

During the SIT inquiry, many students of IIT Bombay told the police that there was a dispute between Darshan Solanki and Armaan a few days before the suicide. When the police inquired about the reason, the students told them that Darshan Solanki had commented about Muslim society, following which Armaan threatened him.

Earlier on April 7, the SIT received a report from a handwriting expert which said the purported suicide note found in the deceased's hostel room was written by him. "There used to be an argument between accused Armaan and Darshan, after which accused Armaan threatened him by showing a knife," officials said.

Powai police then registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and an investigation was started in this matter.