The external committee constituted to look into the death by suicide of a PhD scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has allegedly submitted its report to the director of the institute on August 14. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of IIT Madras shared a screenshot of the email on Twitter, received by the students, informing them of the development.
"The committee has completed the enquiry on the suicide of Sachin Kumar Jain and submitted the report containing the findings and recommendations to the director," the email reads. The JAC wants the report to be published soon. "The enquiry committee has submitted its report to IIT Madras on the allegations regarding the suicide of Sachin Kumar Jain. We demand that the @iitmadras administration publishes the report at the earliest," it tweeted.
Sachin Kumar Jain, the 31-year-old, belonged to the Mechanical Department of IIT Madras. He allegedly died by suicide on March 31 and students claimed that he was being harassed by his PhD guide. Protests erupted on the campus and demands for an external enquiry committee surfaced.
The committee was finally set up late in April. It comprises former IPS officer G Thilakavathi 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, IITM and Amal Manoharan, a research scholar from the institute, who represented the student body.
