IIT Bombay suicide: Mumbai Police arrests Darshan Solanki's batchmate

Two days after the forensic department confirmed the handwriting on the alleged suicide note of 18-year-old IIT Powai student, Darshan Solanki, the police, on Sunday morning, arrested Arman Iqbal Khatri, a fellow student who was mentioned in the note. 

Khatri sent to 4-days police custody

Khatri was taken to the Esplanade magistrate court on Sunday afternoon which granted four days police custody till April 12 for further investigation. Darshan was from Gujarat while Khatri was earlier a resident of Vile Parle. 

The case so far

Solanki, a chemical engineering student jumped from the seventh floor of his hostel building at IIT Powai campus on February 12 and died. The Powai police , which initially investigated the case, failed to find the suicide note. Subsequently, with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) being assigned the task, it found the note under the study table of Darshan. It was a four page question-answer sheet and on the last blank page Darshan had alleged that Khatri had killed him. It said "Arman has killed me". Khatri and Darshan lived in the same wing of the hostel in the IIT campus.  Khatri was called in for questioning twice earlier by the SIT, but the police failed to make any headway. Khatri admitted he had a fight with Darshan and after that the latter remained fearful of him. The reason for the fight was not revealed by the police however it pointed towards a likely case of bullying. 

Darshan's father had raised casteism angle

The SIT began probing the case from February 28, after the a casteism angle was raised in the case by Darshan's father Rameshbhai and the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC), which is active in the Powai campus. The caste angle was ruled out by a internal probe report of the IIT. The police are also now ruling out the caste angle. 

The confirmation of Solanki’s handwriting on the note by the forensic department on April 7 put an end to the speculations of a casteism angle involved in the case. 

Earlier the family members of Solanki had alleged that their son was discriminated on the basis of his caste at the IIT campus.