The Bombay High Court granted bail to Arman Khatri, who was arrested in connection with IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki's suicide. Solanki, who hailed from Ahmedabad and was a first-year student of the B Tech (Chemical) course, died after allegedly jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building on the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) in suburban Powai on February 12, a day after the semester exams ended. Three weeks later, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police found a one-line note from Solanki's room saying, “Arman has killed me."
The court observed that mere allegations in a suicide note would not be sufficient to draw conclusion that the accused has committed the offence of abetment. The court in its order also said there is nothing on record to show that Khatri was harassing Solanki on the ground of caste discrimination or instigated the latter to commit suicide.
“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. 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.
