MUMBAI: Parents of deceased IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode began an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday, seeking justice for their son and action against those they allege tormented him, news agency PTI reported.Mumbai Police had detained Sahil’s father, Ravindra Wakode, while he was travelling to the IIT Bombay campus to begin the protest.“Those who tortured my son should be put behind bars. He had told us that he repeatedly faced caste discrimination at the institute,” Sahil’s father Ravindra said.The parents had earlier met Kishor Makwana, chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and submitted their demands to the commission. Sahil died by suicide on September 18.The Commission has taken suo moto cognizance of the matter and have filed a complaint and will be investigating it.According to information, parents have sought an independent investigation into the selective leakage of CCTV footage to the media, including why only one particular footage was leaked.The protest comes amid the Crime Branch probe into Sahil’s death and fresh scrutiny of CCTV footage from the exam hall, which shows him looking at a mobile phone before an invigilator approached him and asked him to leave the hall.Investigators are examining his movements and interactions after he left the examination hall, while also probing allegations of discrimination and harassment.Sahil, 22, a second-year B Tech student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, was found hanging in his hostel room on September 18 evening, hours after he was allegedly found using AI-platform in an examination hall.(With agency inputs)
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