Mumbai: IIT-Bombay student Arman Khatri, booked for abetting the suicide of his batchmate Darshan Solanki, has approached the special SC-ST court for discharge, days after withdrawing his petition from the high court.
Solanki, a student of chemical engineering, died on February 12, 2023 after jumping from the seventh-floor of his hostel building. Though he was rushed to hospital but was declared dead. The police had on April 9, 2023, arrested Khatri in the case.
Khatri had approached the Bombay high court for quashing of the case, citing several irregularities in the case, and that he had nothing to do with Solanki’s suicide. It was alleged that days before the incident, the two got into heated arguments, where Solanki is alleged to have made communal remarks on Khatri. Later, Khatri had been threatening Solanki with a paper cutter, the other students had told the police.
Khatri had been contending that the issues between the two had been resolved, which was also stated by another student. Further, he claimed that the alleged suicide note stating that ‘Arman has killed me’ cannot be the basis to prosecute him.
Khatri claimed that the note was recovered around 20 days after the incident from the room, which was not even sealed. The note seems to have been planted with malafide intentions, Khatri had pleaded in his petition seeking to quash the case.
However, the petition filed in the high court was withdrawn, after the court expressed that the case cannot be quashed at this stage as it has already reached the stage of trial. Soon after withdrawal of the petition, the defence lawyers approached the special court for discharge. The court has now asked the prosecution to file a reply to the plea.
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