MUMBAI: The probe in the abetment of suicide case of an IIT-Bombay student was transferred to the Mumbai Police‘s crime branch late on Saturday.An ACP-rank officer from the crime branch will be carrying out the probe.Sahil Wakode, 20, was found dead in his hostel room at the campus on Friday.After his parents lodged a complaint with the Powai Police on Saturday, an FIR was registered for abetment of suicide under provisions of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).Police also applied provisions of the Prevention of Atrocities Act, after Wakode’s parents complained that he was being harassed with “casteist slurs.”The FIR names a senior professor of IIT Bombay besides “other senior officials.”This is the third incident of suicide on the campus this year.Wakode’s parents, Ravindra, an office-bearer with a multipurpose cooperative society, and Sonali, a govt school teacher, refused to claim their son’s body from the post-mortem centre at Rajawadi Hospital for over seven hours on Saturday.“I will not conduct the final rites of my son till the accused persons are arrested,” said Ravindra.Wakode was their only child. As the standoff continued, senior IPS officers reached the hospital and tried to persuade the couple to claim the body, assuring them that action would be taken on their complaint.The body was claimed around 9pm after the case was transferred to the crime branch.An IIT-Bombay spokesperson said that the police have registered a case and the matter is under investigation and that IIT-Bombay will cooperate fully with the authorities and requested everyone to respect the family’s privacy.“We ask that people refrain from speculation as the investigation proceeds,” the spokesperson added.
