A special court in Mumbai granted bail to a student accused in the suicide of Darshan Solanki in IIT, and held, “Mere allegations in a suicide note would not be sufficient to draw conclusion that the accused has committed the offence of abetment.”
On May 6, Additional Sessions Judge A. P. Kanade granted bail to Arman Khatri, 18, also a student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, and noted that there is nothing on record to show that Khatri was harassing Solanki.
A detailed court order was made available on Wednesday that read, “So far as the harassment to the deceased on the caste discrimination ground, there is nothing on record to show that the applicant/accused was harassing the deceased on the ground of caste discrimination,” the court said.
“Except one incident of showing the paper cutter to the deceased by the applicant, there is nothing on record to show that the accused instigated deceased Darshan to commit suicide,” it said.
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The court noted on the suicide note, “there is no reference of any act or incident whereby Mr Khatri is alleged to have committed any wilful act of omission or intentional aid or instigated deceased in committing act of suicide. Mere allegations in the suicide note that the applicant is responsible for his death would not be sufficient to come to the conclusion that the applicant has committed the said offence of abetment,” the court observed.
On February 12, Solanki from Ahmedabad who belonged to the Dalit community allegedly died by suicide in the IIT hostel building.
On April 11, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police found a one-line note from Solanki’s room saying, “Arman has killed me.”
Mr. Khatri was arrested soon thereafter and contended he was arrested on suspicion.
Those who require assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts may contact Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health suicide prevention helpline 011-4076 9002 (10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., Monday-Saturday).
