Darshan Solanki Case: Mumbai Police Arrest IIT Student Named in 'Suicide Note'

The arrested student has been identified as Arman Khatri, who was Darshan Solanki's batchmate.

Darshan Solanki, an IIT-Bombay student, died by suicide on 12 February on campus.

(Credit: Namita Chauhan)

The Mumbai Police on Sunday, 9 April said that its Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested a batchmate of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay student Darshan Solanki, in connection to abatement of his suicide.

The arrested student has been identified as Arman Khatri, who was Solanki's batchmate and stayed on the same floor of a hostel as the deceased, the police added, as quoted by news agency PTI.

Khatri was allegedly mentioned in the 'suicide note' recovered by the SIT last month from Darshan's room. The note read, “Arman has killed me,” said Mumbai police, as quoted by PTI.

Darshan Solanki, a first-year student of B.Tech in Chemical Engineering at IIT-Bombay, had died by suicide on 12 February. His family hails from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and they belong to the Dalit community.

This comes 10 days after Mumbai Police filed an First Information Report (FIR) under various sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in relation to the case.

The FIR, filed at Mumbai's Powai police station, also charged "unknown people" under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

'Khatri Was Harassing Him': Police

While Darshan's family and student bodies have linked his death to caste discrimination on campus, IIT Bombay has consistently refuted these allegations and said that Darshan was “severely affected by his deteriorating academic performance.”

However, after recovering the suicide note, as per media reports, the police said that the accused, Arman Iqbal Khatri, was “harassing and threatening him (Darshan).”

“After the investigation, the SIT has revealed that one of the reasons behind his suicide is caste remarks on him. The police will question the students whose names are there in the suicide note,” ANI quoted Mumbai Police as saying.