Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday, 21 September sharply criticised the institutional response to protests at IIT Bombay following the death of second-year student Sahil Wakode, calling the reported dismissal of professors a “band-aid solution” to a far deeper problem. Wakode, a resident of Yavatmal district, Maharashtra, was found dead on the Powai campus on 18 September — hours after he was allegedly caught using a mobile phone during an examination.

What Chaturvedi Said

Posting on X, Chaturvedi wrote: “While the death of the IIT Bombay student is extremely unfortunate and yet another reminder that these premier institutions need to work on the campus environment and mental health but to sack the professors to end the protests is just a band-aid solution to a problem that needs surgery.”

She added: “Also, shifting the blame on the professors who were doing their job of reporting copying during an exam and making it about caste discrimination is a sad outcome.” Her remarks drew attention to the broader question of whether administrative action against individual faculty members addresses the systemic gaps in student mental health support at elite institutions.

The Incident and Its Aftermath

Wakode was pursuing his second year in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay. According to reports, the incident that preceded his death occurred after institute authorities found him using a mobile phone during an examination. He died a few hours later, triggering intense demonstrations at the campus gates in Powai, Mumbai.

Protesters submitted a list of 18 demands, including the resignation of key administrative officials, mandatory mental health workshops for faculty members, and the immediate removal of professors reportedly linked to the incident. The scale of the unrest reflects longstanding concerns about academic pressure and institutional accountability at premier engineering campuses.

Legal Action Against Faculty and Officials

Following the protests, Mumbai Police on Saturday confirmed that a case had been registered against teacher Satyanarayan Dalla. A complaint was also filed against faculty members, senior officials, and other authorities of IIT Bombay under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, as well as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, according to officials.

The invocation of the SC/ST Atrocities Act has added a caste-discrimination dimension to the case, intensifying public and political scrutiny of the institution's handling of both the examination incident and the subsequent protests.

Wider Questions on Campus Mental Health

Chaturvedi's intervention underscores a recurring concern: that India's premier technical institutions — under intense academic pressure and competitive culture — have been slow to build robust mental health infrastructure. This is not an isolated incident; student deaths on IIT campuses have prompted periodic calls for reform, though systemic change has remained elusive. Notably, no independent inquiry into campus environment or mental health protocols has been announced by IIT Bombay's administration as of this report.

With legal proceedings underway and student demands still largely unaddressed, the pressure on IIT Bombay's administration to outline a credible, long-term response is set to intensify in the coming days.