IIT Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee has warned students protesting over the alleged suicide of a 31-year-old MSc student of disciplinary action for raising “threatening slogans” and “disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus”.
In an email to students on Friday, Banerjee noted that the situation had “escalated significantly” on the night of August 27, when a group of protesters extended their agitation into the campus residential zones.
He said the protesters staged demonstrations directly in front of faculty housing between 10.30 pm and 12.30 am and used “unsavory, humiliating and threatening language in their slogans”.
Banerjee said such behaviour compromises the safety, privacy and peace of faculty members and their families, including young children and elderly dependents.
“The Institute will take disciplinary action against individuals disrupting the peaceful functioning of the campus, including residential areas, classes, academic and other activities,” Banerjee wrote in the email.
Responding to the director’s email, the student protesters said in a statement that their core demands remain the same: an investigation into the student’s death, compensation for his family, and action against officials.
The protesting students also rejected allegations that the agitation was being instigated by outsiders or external forces.
The protests have been continuing since August 22, when MSc Physics student Rishikesh Kumar died by suicide after jumping from a building on the institute’s campus.
On Thursday, IIT Delhi reconstituted the external probe panel set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the student’s death, with retired Delhi High Court judge Mukta Gupta as its head.
