Overview
- A 22-year-old second-year student, Sahil Wakode, was found dead in his hostel room on Friday evening hours after invigilators discovered him using a mobile phone during a mid‑semester exam.
- IIT Bombay says he had uploaded the exam question paper to ChatGPT, that instructors counselled him and no formal disciplinary action was initiated before he returned to his hostel.
- Students and Wakode’s parents dispute the institute’s account, alleging threats of suspension, harassment and caste discrimination; the family filed complaints that led police to add abetment and SC/ST Act provisions to the FIR.
- Powai police have seized the student’s mobile phone, collected CCTV footage, sent the body for post‑mortem and say an FIR naming people linked to the exam incident has been registered and is under investigation.
- This is the third reported student death at IIT Bombay in about seven months, a pattern students say underscores gaps in campus mental‑health support and has prompted large protests, calls for administrative accountability and possible changes to exam and discipline processes.