Darshan Solanki allegedly died by suicide at IIT-Bombay last month
A "suicide note" has been found in the room of a student of the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai over a month after he allegedly died by suicide. The police said the student who died by suicide mentioned the name of a classmate in the "suicide note" as responsible for his death.
Darshan Solanki, 18, allegedly jumped off the seventh floor of his hostel building at IIT-Bombay on February 12. In the days after his death, the police had said no suicide note was found.
His family and some students had alleged that Solanki, a Bachelor of Technology student from Gujarat's Ahmedabad, was driven to suicide due to discrimination against Scheduled Castes students on the campus.
Over a month later, and after the case was moved from the police to a special investigation team (SIT), investigators said they have found a "suicide note" from Solanki's room, which says, "Arman has killed me."
Arman Iqbal Khatri, who is named in the "suicide note", is a classmate of Solanki, sources said.
The police have filed a case of abetment to suicide against Mr Khatri. The SIT is looking to what happened between the two students, sources said.
Two days after Solanki allegedly died by suicide last month, his family had told NDTV he was ostracised by his friends because of his caste. The authorities at IIT-Bombay denied any such discrimination on the campus.
"When he came last month, he told me, and mom-dad, that there's caste discrimination happening there. His friends came to know that he belongs to Scheduled Castes, so their behaviour towards him changed. They stopped talking to him, they stopped hanging out with him," his sister Jhanvi Solanki said.
"He was in distress, he was being tortured. That's why he did this," his mother Tarlikaben Solanki said.