According to police sources, Wakode — a second-year BTech student at IIT Bombay who died by suicide last month — had submitted a written statement to the institute following a cheating incident, in which he expressed regret and requested an opportunity to continue. Wakode offered an apology, telling those present that insufficient preparation on his part had led to the poor result on the examination.

An inquiry has been launched by officers, drawing on the contents of that statement as its foundation. In a statement given to investigators, Professor Suryanarayan Dolla — listed among those facing charges in the abetment-to-suicide case — disputed the claims of harassment that Wakode's parents had put forward against him.

His body was discovered in a hostel room on September 18, several hours after Wakode, aged 22, had sat the examination. A mobile phone found on Wakode during the mid-semester exam on 18 September had led to his detention.

Shortly after the cheating incident, Wakode contacted a female acquaintance and mentioned that his thermodynamics theory examination had not gone as planned, adding that he had been hoping to achieve a strong result. According to police sources, he disclosed to her that he had been found to have cheated on the exam.

Investigators from the city crime branch, who are handling the matter, have taken down a formal statement from Shireesh Kedare, the director of IIT Bombay. According to Kedare, the case bears on how institutions are expected to handle students found using prohibited materials to cheat in exams — specifically, what procedures govern that response.

Statements from more than 20 individuals — roughly a dozen of them students — have been recorded by investigators so far, alongside testimony from Prof Dolla, who sits at the centre of the allegations under examination. Alongside the law-enforcement investigation, a ten-member panel established by the institute is conducting its own separate internal review.

Under the institute's academic malpractice procedures, any student found to have engaged in copying receives a copy of the instructor's report along with the supporting evidence, at which point a window of two working days opens for that student to put forward a written response. According to the institute's documented procedures, any invigilator who spots misconduct during an examination is directed to take away the materials involved — including chits, mobile phones, and answer papers — issue a blank answerbook, and permit the student to carry on with the test.

The senate-approved disciplinary policy — one that had mandated a failing mark alongside a one-semester suspension for students caught using chits, mobile phones, or similar devices to cheat — has since been rescinded by the institute. During a senate meeting the previous week, the institute voted to restore its disciplinary framework from 2015, under which suspension is reserved for offences such as impersonation or repeated violations. Updated procedures at the institute now carry a clause directing exam supervisors to contact the wellness response team whenever a student needs support.

Protests broke out across the campus once the news circulated, though a substantial number wound down after the institution opened its doors to the public four days on. A handful of students — somewhere between ten and twelve — have kept their protest going at the entrance to the main gate. A rotating hunger strike has also been under way among the group.

A call for an independent inquiry into the matter has come from the student body. Ravindra and Sonali, the parents of Wakode, have joined the hunger strike alongside their son. By Monday, the action had stretched into its twelfth consecutive day. The family has called for the detention of institute officials and accountability over their son's fate.