IIT Bombay exam hall incident to student’s mental state: How police are probing suicide case

On September 22, 2026, the Congress party accused the government of concealing data on student suicides at India's prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The allegation comes after a news report claimed that 53 students had taken their own lives at IITs over the last five years, with more than half of the victims belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.

Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal claimed that the Ministry of Education had deliberately omitted suicide-related statistics from its response to a parliamentary query he had submitted in December 2025. Venugopal stated that an Under Secretary in the Ministry had sent a request for the relevant information to IITs on December 1, 2025, but the data was not included in the Minister's subsequent response.

This, he argued, demonstrated an intention to deceive the public and conceal the extent of discrimination at these elite government institutions.

The Congress leader referenced the tragic case of Sahil Wakode, a student from an SC background at IIT-Bombay who had recently taken his own life. Venugopal called for an explanation from the government regarding why such crucial data was withheld. "When Sahil Wakode's death has shocked the entire nation, hiding such data makes the government complicit in creating the atmosphere that caused Sahil's death," he said.

Kodikunnil Suresh, the party's Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha and a Dalit leader himself, expressed deep concern over the student's death. "Sahil's life mattered. His dignity mattered. His family deserves truth, justice and accountability," Suresh posted on X. The Congress party has demanded that the government disclose the data and outline measures to address the mental health concerns of students from marginalized communities at the IITs.