Some stories don't have a fun angle. This is one of them.
A second-year student at one of India's most famous institutions was found dead in his hostel room. Two weeks later, his classmates are on a hunger strike, his parents are on one too, and the whole country is watching a campus that's supposed to represent the best of our education system. Let me be honest, it's heavy. But it's also a story worth understanding properly.
What Happened to Sahil Wakode
On September 18, Sahil Wakode, a second-year student at IIT Bombay, was found dead in his hostel room. Reports say he died by suicide, and that this came after he was allegedly caught cheating during a mid-semester exam.
Police have reportedly said he told a friend he regretted copying in the exam before his death. That detail is part of the public record, but it's also only a piece of the picture, and I don't want to flatten a young person's life into a single moment.
His parents, Ravindra and Sonali Wakode, tell a different story about the pressure he was under. They accuse Professor Suryanarayana Doolla of caste-based discrimination and harassment. I haven't come across a detailed response from the institute on these specific allegations in what I read, and police inquiries are ongoing, so none of this has been established. These are the family's claims, and they're serious ones.
Two Protests, One Demand
Right after the news broke, hundreds of students gathered on campus and marched toward the main gate. They've been protesting for about 15 days now, and on Friday, October 2, they decided to escalate. The students began a hunger strike.
And that date matters. Gandhi Jayanti, a hunger strike, a campus full of young people asking hard questions of an institution. The symbolism isn't lost on anyone, even if nobody planned it that way.
The 18-Point Charter
On Friday, the protesting students marched to the main gate and handed the administration an 18-point charter of demands. The reports I read list the headline items, and they're pretty clear:
| Demand | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Independent, transparent investigation | A probe not run by the institute itself |
| Changes to the inquiry committee | The students want the existing panel reworked |
| Resignation of Director Shireesh Kedare | Top-level accountability |
| Suspension of Prof. Suryanarayana Doolla | Until the investigation is complete |
The rest of the 18 points weren't spelled out in the coverage I found, so I won't pretend to list them. Some reports also mention demands for institutional reform and an independent external panel.
Why the Students Chose a Hunger Strike
Here's the thing, a hunger strike isn't a casual move. It's physically risky, and it says: we've run out of other ways to be heard. The students said they'd continue the agitation this way to press for justice and accountability.
They're also not acting in a vacuum. The move came after Sahil's parents were denied police permission to keep protesting on weekends at Mumbai's Azad Maidan. Once that door closed, the students stepped up.
The Parents' Fight at Azad Maidan
Ravindra and Sonali Wakode have been on an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan, and their protest had entered its fifth day by the time the students joined. They're demanding the arrest of Professor Doolla and Director Kedare. Think about that for a second. These are parents who buried a child and are now sitting in a public ground, refusing food, asking for answers.
That's where it gets interesting, and honestly, painful. When the police refused permission for weekend protests, the family's visible presence got reduced. The students then carried the agitation forward from inside the campus, so in a way, the protest passed from one set of hands to another instead of dying out.
The Timeline So Far
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 18 | Sahil Wakode found dead in hostel room |
| Soon after | Hundreds of students gather and march to the main gate |
| Following days | Parents begin indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan |
| Later | Police deny permission for weekend protests at Azad Maidan |
| Friday, Oct 2 | Students submit 18-point charter and begin hunger strike |
The Bigger Conversation
This isn't the first time an IIT has faced uncomfortable questions after a student's death. Concerns about caste-based discrimination, academic pressure and mental health support on campuses have come up before, and student groups have raised them for years.
And yeah, I think that's why this protest has legs. Whatever the final facts turn out to be, the students are asking for something fairly basic: a process they can trust. A probe that isn't marking its own homework. That's hard to argue with, no matter where you land on the specific allegations.
What We Don't Know Yet
Honestly, there's a lot still missing. The police investigation is ongoing. The institute's detailed position on the demands wasn't something I found. And the caste-discrimination allegations haven't been proven or disproven. It'd be easy to jump to a conclusion in either direction, and I'd rather not.
What I can say is that the demand for an independent inquiry is a fair one on its face. If the institute's own process holds up, an outside look will only confirm that. If it doesn't, everyone will want to know.