IIT Bombay now sits in the eye of a storm, its campus echoing with the loss of a third student in just seven months. The first tragedy hit in February, followed by a 20‑year‑old student's death in July, and now the most recent fatality has turned a quiet corridor into a protest zone.
Sahil Wakode was caught on campus surveillance uploading his exam question paper to ChatGPT to seek instant answers. Instead of a formal sanction, faculty counselled him, assuring that his academic trajectory would remain untouched, and he was allowed to return to his hostel room. Hours later, he was found dead in that same room.
Around 400 students flooded the institute’s main quad, chanting for transparency and accountability. They alleged that the administration had threatened a one‑year suspension and even the possibility of expulsion from campus housing, citing the potential to push the completion of their engineering degree beyond the four‑year norm.
In a statement released that afternoon, IIT Bombay said it was "looking into" the circumstances, confirming that no disciplinary action had been taken and that the matter had been discussed with both the instructor and the head of the department.
Mental‑health experts note a worrying uptick in student distress at top engineering schools, warning that punitive approaches may exacerbate the problem. The campus has yet to adopt a comprehensive review of its stress‑management and academic‑support frameworks.
The board of governors is slated to meet next week to examine the findings of the investigation and to decide whether the institute’s current disciplinary guidelines need tightening. The outcome of that meeting will determine the next step in protecting students from similar tragedies.