Mumbai: Month after Darshan Solanki’s death, SIT recovers suicide note from IIT Bombay's hostel room

Mumbai: The probe in the death of 18-year-old Darshan Solanki, a student of IIT Bombay, on February 12, took a dramatic turn on Monday, with the special investigation team (SIT) claiming to have found a suicide note “right under his study table”. The note reportedly had just four words: ‘Arman has killed me”. Arman Iqbal Khatri was Darshan’s wing mate.

A SIT officer said, “After we took over the case, it was our first priority to conduct a detailed search of Darshan’s hostel room. As our team embarked on its search, in the first few days itself, on March 3, we found the note right under Solanki’s study table.”

Powai police couldn't find the note during initial probe

This begs the question why the Powai police, who conducted the initial investigation, failed to find the note earlier, as it had not been hidden anywhere but had been under the study table all this while; it also raises the question of whether they did a shoddy job. With the sensational discovery made by the SIT however, the Powai police will now have to answer many questions. The SIT has sent the note to a handwriting expert, but Darshan’s mother has confirmed to the police that it was indeed that of her son. Now, the SIT is waiting for Darshan’s family to come from Gujarat and register a first information report (FIR).

Darshan, a first-year BTech student of chemical engineering at IIT Bombay, had reportedly died by suicide, jumping off the seventh-floor hostel room on Feburary 12. After his death, his family had cited caste-based harassment as the reason for his suicide. A SIT led by Joint Commissioner (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam was formed on February 27, to probe the incident. 

Note sent for forensic analysis

To verify the handwriting on the note, it has been sent for forensic analysis along with his exam answer sheets, and using these, a handwriting expert will confirm the details. However, according to the officer, Darshan’s mother has already confirmed that the handwriting on the note is that of her son. 

“At present, an Accidental Death Report (ADR) has been registered in the case, but to continue the probe regarding the name of the person mentioned in the note, we will have to wait for the family to register an FIR in the case,” the officer added. 

Earlier, when the family had alleged caste discrimination, an IIT panel had said it had found no such discrimination in its findings and the sole factor driving the student to take the extreme step was related to academics.

SIT states one of Darshan's classmates harassed and threatened him

SIT officers have said that a classmate named Arman Iqbal Khatri had been identified as the one who was allegedly harassing and threatening him and they had found some WhatsApp chats between the two. “We suspect that something happened that day, and he (the deceased) wrote a suicide note before jumping from the seventh floor,” an officer said. 

FPJ found that the accused student was Darshan’s wingmate in Hostel 16.

“In the starting years, freshers share maximum interaction with their wingmates, as they live close by. The wingmates were even mentored by the same senior assigned by the Institute Student Mentorship Programme (ISMP),” a student said. The accused studied chemical engineering with Darshan and was his classmate.

Darshan’s family, however, were not privy to this development, as Powai Police had informed them that no suicide note was discovered in his room. “Police told us that there was no note from the very beginning. We had never heard about this boy from Darshan. He never told us about any bullying or ragging within the institute either,” said Indravadan Solanki, Darshan’s maternal uncle. Darshan's parents, Ramesh and Tarlika Solanki, have been called to Mumbai in connection with the case, the family informed.

SIT was set up after student groups claimed caste discrimination as reason of Darshan's suicide

The SIT was set up after Darshan jumped to death from his hostel building two months after having arrived on the IIT Bombay campus. Following the tragedy, several student groups at IIT Bombay had alleged that caste discrimination on the campus had made Darshan take this extreme step. His family, on the other hand, believed that their son could not have committed suicide but had been murdered.

Following an order issued by the Maharashtra home department, Powai Police handed over the probe to the SIT on February 24, 2023.