Police detain Sahil Wakode’s parents and students, clear IIT Bombay protest site

• Mumbai Police detained Sahil Wakode’s parents and several students during a protest outside IIT Bombay on Sunday.

• The family’s lawyer said he was also detained and taken with the couple to Azad Maidan police station.

• Police cleared the protest site, where students and activists had held demonstrations and hunger strikes for a month.

Mumbai Police detained the parents of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode and several students on Sunday before clearing a month-old protest site outside the institute.

Students and activists from multiple organisations had been staging demonstrations and hunger strikes to demand accountability over Wakode’s death by suicide. They were also seeking the arrest of Professor Suryanarayana Doola, who was named in the FIR concerning the death.

Police initially detained 10 students before Wakode’s parents arrived. Those students were subsequently released and returned to the gathering.

Ravindra and Sonali Wakode later reached the institute, where Ravindra submitted a letter to the registrar. Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad also visited and met the couple.

Lawyer Siddhartha Ingale said police detained the parents after Gaikwad left. He said officers also detained him and took them to Azad Maidan police station.

Police subsequently took another 16 students into custody before clearing the gathering and dismantling the protest site.

The action brought an end to the protest encampment outside the institution, where participants had continued pressing their demands for a month.

With agency inputs