Darshan Solanki Case: Court Says Nothing to Show Accused Harassed his IIT-B Peer

Arman Khatri was arrested on 9 April in connection with alleged abetment of suicide and granted bail on 6 May.

Darshan Solanki was a first-year BTech student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B).

(Photo: Altered by Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint)

On 6 May, a special court in Mumbai said that there was nothing to show that Indian Institutes of Technology -Bombay (IIT-B) student Darshan Solanki was harassed by fellow student Arman Khatri, while granting bail to the latter.  

As per a report by The Indian Express, the court said that mere allegations in a suicide note are not sufficient to conclude that the accused has committed the offence of abetment.

Khatri, 18, was arrested on 9 April in connection with the alleged abetment of suicide and was granted bail on 6 May. 

'Nothing on Record to Show Harassment': Court Order 

The court said in its order;

So far as the harassment to the student on the caste discrimination ground, there is nothing on record to show that the applicant/accused was harassing the student on the ground of caste discrimination.

The court order

It further added, “Except one incident of showing the paper cutter to Darshan by the applicant, there is nothing on record to show that the accused instigated Darshan to commit suicide." 

On 12 February, 18-year-old Darshan died allegedly by suicide inside the hostel building of the IIT Bombay campus. He hailed from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad and belonged to the Dalit community.  

Khatri was his batchmate and the two stayed on the same floor of the hostel.  

What did the purported suicide note read?

Khatri’s name was allegedly mentioned in a purported suicide note recovered by the Mumbai police. According to the Mumbai Police, the note read, “Arman has killed me." 

On 11 April, the police recovered a paper cutter which was allegedly used by Khatri to threaten Darshan.  

The police had told The Indian Express, “Today, we took Khatri to his hostel room on IIT campus. There we recovered the cutter based on the information provided by him in the presence of witnesses. It will be an important evidence.”   

(With inputs from The Indian Express and NDTV)