A fresh inquiry committee has been constituted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) to look into the death of Sachin Kumar Jain, a 31-year-old PhD scholar from the Mechanical Department, who allegedly died by suicide on March 31. This after students were vehemently protesting and asking for the same.
On April 25, Tuesday, an email was sent to the students by the Registrar that an inquiry committee has been constituted to look into the matter. The committee comprises five members, out of which three are retired bureaucrats and the other two members are a professor from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras and a research scholar.
"One of a kind"
EdexLive spoke to a student from the Joint Action Committee of IIT Madras regarding the constitution of the committee. The member opined that it was "one of a kind" because in the history of IIT Madras, there has never been an external committee to look into the matters and most of the matters were dealt with the help of internal interventions.
The spokesperson, on the condition of anonymity, further said, "I hope the outcome will be positive once the committee starts functioning."
He also stated that the Joint Action Committee is contacting the former students of the Mechanical Engineering department, IIT Madras, and requesting them to appear before the committee in order to bring fairness to the case.
Might not be very fruitful
EdexLive spoke to Neetesh Meena. He is an MTech student and Chairperson of the Financial Accountability Committee of IIT Madras. He said that they had originally put forth the demand for an external investigation where the members should comprise a human rights official, a member of the judiciary, a bureaucrat, a student representative and a member of the faculty. Yet, the members, three out of five, are bureaucrats.
Neetesh further stated, "I am not happy with the committee. There are chances that the decision would be a diplomatic one, that they would side with the institution and would not be students' ally. The committee is not fruitful for us," he added.
When asked that the committee also comprised a member selected by the student body to support their cause. He said, "The student body had submitted three names to the director and they chose a research scholar who might not be very verbose about the situation given he is at an important juncture in his career and the authority later might somehow try to intervene."
He further spoke on the nomination of Professor Ravindra Gettu. "The recommendations for the professors were not made by the students and were chosen by the authority. They usually would tend to choose those whose views align with their's and with whom they are comfortable."
Director of IIT Madras, Prof V Kamakoti, is the one who appoints them, he informed.
Removal of Dean?
EdexLive further inquired about the status of the dean's removal, Professor Nilesh J Vasa, to which Neetesh replied that the council usually has a 30-day window to come to a decision and mostly, these are decided in a meeting by the Board of Governors, which takes place after an interval of two to three months. He emphasised the need for an emergency meeting and stated that a circular has already been signed by the student body members of IIT Madras. This circular had signatures of 16 out of 20 student secretaries.
On the inquiry committee are...
The committee comprises G Thilakavathi, a former IPS officer, who will preside as the Chairperson; D Sabitha, a former IAS officer and Chief Project Officer at the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC) as a member; Kannegi Packianathan, as the Member Secretary; Professor Ravindra Gettu, as member of the Faculty of the Civil Engineering Department, IIT Madras and Amal Manoharan, a research scholar from IIT Madras, who will be the representative of the student body.
