IIT-B student arrested for suicide of Darshan Solanki

Mumbai: In a major development, the Mumbai Police SIT has arrested a student of IIT-B in connection with the alleged suicide of a Dalit student Darshan Solanki, here on Sunday, officials said.

The accused has been identified as one Arman Khatri, a batchmate of Solanki, and living on the same floor of the IIT-B Students hostel.

The fast-paced development came after the SIT sleuths recovered a purported suicide chit on March 3, that said “Arman jas killed me”.

An expert last week confirmed the writing matched with Solanki’s, making a breakthrough.

Belonging to a modest background, Solanki, 22, was a FY B.Tech (Chemical Engineering) course and hailed from Gujarat.

On February 12, he allegedly hurtled himself down from the 7th floor of his hostel building and ended his life, sparking a huge row on academic campuses all over India.

An IIT-B probe panel later ruled out any caste-based discrimination on the campus as the probable cause leading to Solanki’s death and pointed fingers at his poor academic records.

His family rejected the IIT-B report and demanded that the Mumbai Police lodge an FIR based on their complaint, which was subsequently done.

The Solanki family also contended that he was subjected to casteist bias on the campus and suspected foul play making him resort to suicide.

The state government also set up SIT to probe the matter which finally culminated in the arrest.

(IANS)