MUMBAI: The IIT-B administration and students protesting the September 18 suicide of an undergraduate student are still locked in a deadlock over returning the students’ belongings and a statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar removed form the protest site.

IIT-B students remain locked in standoff

The students, who have been facing off with the IIT administration for weeks, arrived at the campus security office at 10 am and were met with a panel of four professors and security officers. Cameras were also recording the process.

The students began to collect their belongings confiscated from a protest site they had set up on campus. Their demand for the presence of a student representative was turned down, they said in a letter circulated among the IIT-B community on Saturday,

They also demanded the return of a statue of Dr Ambedkar and portraits of the deceased student, Dr Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule, Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh. When the institute allegedly said it did not have the statue, the students said they were concerned it had been damaged during its removal. They alleged the panel suspended the process after they asked for student representation.

However, the sources said that the institute, in an email to faculty members, said the administration had agreed to return the Ambedkar statue as a gesture of respect but the students did not accept it. The distribution of belongings was postponed until further deliberations.

Meanwhile, parents of the student who died by suicide will lead a candle light march at Chaityabhumi, Dadar, on Sunday, seeking “justice” for their son.