Sahil Wakode’s parents, protesting IIT-B students detained; protest site demolished

A month has passed since IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode took his own life, and his parents were arrested by Mumbai Police on Sunday while resting at a protest site within the campus, alongside students actively protesting. Police also tore down the protest area close to the institute's main entrance, where students had been demonstrating for the past month.

Sahil's father, Ravindra, and mother, Sonali, had arrived at the campus to pay their respects to their son, who passed away on September 18. Ravindra Wakode presented a letter to the institute's Registrar. According to the family's lawyer, Siddhartha Ingale, the police apprehended the couple shortly after Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad left the site after meeting with them.

Ingale also stated that he was detained along with the parents. "The parents were merely sitting at the protest site, where the father had given a letter to the Registrar. Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad was there to meet them. But as soon as she left, the police apprehended the parents along with me and the protesting students," Ingale explained.

He mentioned that the police were taking them to Azad Maidan police station. Earlier, approximately ten students were detained from the protest site before Sahil's parents arrived. They were released shortly afterward and returned to the site to join the protest in support of the family. Ingale reported that the police then asked Ravindra Wakode to vacate the site, but he declined to leave until the detained student activists were freed, leading to his and his wife's arrest.

Around sixteen students present at the site were also allegedly forcibly removed in a police vehicle as the protest site was cleared and demolished.