New Delhi: IIT Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee has warned students of disciplinary action, saying the protest over the death of 31-year-old MSc student Rishikesh Kumar "escalated significantly" on Thursday night, with demonstrations reaching campus residential areas.
In an email to students on Friday, Professor Banerjee wrote a group of protesters demonstrated outside faculty housing between 10.30PM and 12.30AM and used "unsavoury, humiliating and threatening language in their slogans".
"Such behaviour compromises the safety, privacy, and peace of faculty members and their families, including young children and elderly dependents," the email read.
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At midnight, IIT Delhi students raised a powerful call:
— Voice Of IITD (@VoiceofIITD) August 27, 2026
“Professor bahar aao, aao hamara saath do!”
A call for their professors to stand with them in solidarity and support their fight for #JusticeForRishikesh.@iitdelhi @TheNewspinch @the_hindu @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/KOw4OgiiWF
The Director stated the institute would act against those disrupting the functioning of the campus.
"The Institute will take disciplinary actions against individuals disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus including residential areas, classes, academic and other activities," Banerjee wrote.
The communication came as student demonstrations entered their fifth consecutive day following Kumar's death. Students have been demanding an independent inquiry, action against institute officials and compensation for his family.
At the same time, the institute said several measures have already been initiated following discussions with student representatives.
"The External Inquiry committee has started functioning," Banerjee wrote. He added that the institute's support for Kumar's family through the Benevolent Fund had been approved. A separate fund has also been created to receive voluntary contributions from faculty, students and staff.
The institute is also set to appoint an External Ombudsperson next week, according to the Director. "We have continued to engage with our student representatives and other students in good faith," he mentioned.
The latest protest took place on Thursday night, with students marching through the campus carrying banners that read, "IIT Delhi students demand justice! Investigation, Compensation, Resignation. We stand with Rishikesh." Security personnel had barricaded the institute's main gate during the demonstration.
Kumar allegedly died by suicide on Saturday after jumping from the sixth floor of a building on the IIT Delhi campus. The Delhi Police have registered an FIR against unknown persons for alleged abetment of suicide.
The protesting students have sought the resignation of the Dean, Associate Dean (Student Welfare), Associate Dean (Hostel Management) and Head of the Physics Department. They have also demanded at least Rs 1 crore in compensation for Kumar's family.
Students have maintained that Kumar's death was the eighth suicide on the IIT Delhi campus since 2023.
The administration has not accepted the demands for resignations or the specific compensation amount sought by the students.
Students Reject 'Threatening Slogans' Claim, Question Campus Systems
Students protesting at IIT Delhi have disputed the administration's description of slogans raised during Thursday night's demonstration, saying the march through hostels and residential areas was to seek support from the campus community and push for changes in what they describe as a failing system.
A third-year B.Tech student told NDTV on the condition of anonymity that students had marched to different hostels and residential areas to seek solidarity.
"This is the first time that an institution like IIT is seeing this kind of a student uprising, and that has become the problem for the system. We all feel so isolated and haven't been able to fight the current mechanisms. We marched to every hostel and residential area to ask for their solidarity and to ask for changes in a failing system," the third-year student said.
The students questioned the effectiveness of the committees set up by the institute to address their concerns.
"Just setting up 10 different types of committees and then having them do no work doesn't work. There is a breakdown of trust between students and the administration," said a fourth-year B.Tech student.
The students also said their demands were rooted in their experiences on campus rather than any political agenda.
Another "Our demands are coming from a place of personal experience and not politics," the fourth-year student said.
On the slogans that have become a point of contention, the third-year B.Tech student said the protesters were calling on students and professors to come out in support of them.
"Our slogans last night were: 'Aravali hostel bahar aao humaara saath do, Professors bahar aao humaara saath do'. We have video proof of our slogans too. But it's being maligned as threats to professors," the student said.
The students alleged that some professors who had objected to the slogans had complained and threatened to file police complaints.
They also made a distinction between the Director and other members of the administration. The fourth-year B.Tech student said Rangan Banerjee had been willing to listen to the students even when he did not agree with them.
"The Director has always been a person who listens to students. He is actually the only person in the administration who listens to us. Irrespective of whether he agrees or disagrees, he at least listens to us and is open to dialogue," the student said.
The students alleged that there was less openness elsewhere in the administration.
"Other administrators work in a hive mentality and not in good faith. Faculty have closed ranks amongst themselves," the fourth-year student said.
Mental health support on campus was among the students' biggest concerns. The fifth-year PhD student alleged that much of the infrastructure cited by the administration exists "on paper".
"A lot of the mental health infrastructure that has been stated is on paper. The counsellors are there, but if you ask students about their experience with such counsellors, it is harrowing," the student said.
The student alleged that the focus of counselling often returned to academics even when students were facing serious difficulties.
"The line on which this counselling is that: focus on your academics even if your life is on the line. This isn't written or said anywhere--it is unsaid," the student said.
The students also referred to a review committee set up to examine mental health infrastructure at the institute. The fifth-year PhD student alleged that the committee could not complete its work because of difficulties in getting access to certain data and protocols.
"There was a review committee set up by students on the mental health infrastructure in the college. This wasn't able to go through because of the Dean of Student Welfare, Professor Sreedevi Upadhyayula-active stonewalling of our demands for certain data and protocols until now, when we had to resort to protest. Now all these disclosures are being made as damage control," the student said.
"The systems have been in place but they don't work. In terms of counselling, the last concluding remark of the counsellors here is: 'Why don't you focus on studies?'" the student said.
The students said they had raised the issue directly with the Director during Monday's protest.
"Thousands of students were sitting in front of the Director, communicating to him about the crumbling mental health infrastructure," the third-year BTech student said.
The students also spoke about what they described as a growing insensitivity towards suicides on campus.
"A majority of professors have normalised student suicides on campus as something like that's part and parcel. That insensitivity makes the situation worse for us-triggering whether our lives matter or not," the fourth-year B.Tech student said.
At the same time, the students said there were faculty members who supported their concerns but were reluctant to be seen publicly with the protesters. They attributed this to the influence of permanent faculty members across departments.
"The majority of professors who are against the student movement, are permanent faculty, they belong to the main lobby and teach in the cream courses 0f Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering," said the fifth-year PhD student.
According to the students, five or six professors from different departments, including Physics and Management Studies, had stepped out to show solidarity. They also said a senior professor had come out in support of the students.
