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Mangaluru: “They killed my baby. They killed my baby,” a distraught Sonali Wakode repeated as she was escorted out of the Powai police station.

Her son, Sahil Wakode, 20, an engineering student at IIT Bombay, was found dead in his hostel room on Friday (September 18). He allegedly died by suicide. The institute has since issued a statement claiming he was found using his mobile phone during his mid-term exam, and that no disciplinary action was initiated against him. But students of the institute and his parents have accused it of casteism and of humiliating him, which they say resulted in his death.

Sahil Wakode. Photo: LinkedIn.

Sahil, who belonged to a Scheduled Caste community from Yavatmal, Maharashtra, was a second-year student in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering. Friends remember him as a “studious boy” who scored a CGPA of 8.5 in his first year. His mother is a school teacher in Yavatmal and father works in the security team at a bank.

Sahil’s classmates and friends have accused professor Sooryanarayana Doolla of the energy science department of pushing him to the extreme. Doolla is also dean of administrative affairs and was an invigilator in the........

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