19-year-old classmate mentioned in IIT Bombay student’s ‘suicide’ note arrested

An undated photo of Darshan Solanki and his family

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the death of 18-year-old IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki on Sunday arrested Arman Khatri, 19, a classmate who was mentioned in a note left behind by the deceased, for abetment of suicide. Solanki allegedly jumped to his death from his seventh-floor hostel room on February 12.

According to sources, the arrest was made based on the suicide note found on March 3 which bore the line "Arman has killed me". The handwriting bureau recently submitted a report to the Mumbai Crime Branch, confirming that the writing on the suicide note matches that of Solanki.

The SIT told the court that the deceased was being threatened by Khatri with a cutter after he made a comment on the latter's religion. Khatri was produced before the special holiday court in Colaba, and the SIT sought his custody as they wanted to record statements of some witnesses in the case and recover the cutter that was used to threaten Solanki.

Also Read: ‘Darshan never mentioned the threats to us'

The defence lawyer Dinesh Gupta told the court that custodial interrogation was not required as the case was being investigated by the SIT and Powai police, and nothing was found against Khatri and police custody is not required just for the recovery of the cutter. However, the court granted police custody to the SIT till April 13 to probe the matter further.

Officials have said that Solanki got scared after Khatri showed him a cutter, saying, "Tujhe chhodunga nahi." The deceased apologised to the accused several times, but the rift between them was not mended. The crime branch is now probing what exactly happened on the day Solanki died, and if the accused does not reveal the facts, the SIT is going to move an application before the court for narco-analysis and a lie detector test.

The SIT stated that a week prior to the alleged suicide, the accused and the deceased were seen arguing and confronting each other. Witnesses reported that Solanki had apologised to Khatri several times. "Some students have said that Solanki made comments about Khatri's religion, which he didn't appreciate, and that their relationship soured after that," said an officer.

Investigate caste: father
The father of the deceased, Ramesh Solanki, told mid-day, "The police should investigate whatever has surfaced during the course of the investigation, but I want them to focus on the caste-based discrimination which my son mentioned on several occasions. He was also willing to change his room due to the harassment. His roommate also needs to be asked why he reduced his communication with my son." Ramesh Solanki added that his son never mentioned that he was receiving threats from Khatri but the police should look into the matter.

Three
Day in March when note was found