Mumbai: The crime branch is examining whether IIT-B’s prescribed standard operating procedure (SOP) for dealing with students caught cheating using unauthorised material during exams was followed in Sahil Wakode’s case.Wakode was allegedly caught using a phone during an exam, hours before his death.According to IIT-B’s academic disciplinary procedures, any unauthorised material or device is to be confiscated, the student may be provided a fresh answer book to complete the exam, and an invigilator’s report is to be prepared. The matter is then examined by the departmental academic disciplinary action committee, or the academic disciplinary action committee in more serious cases, to determine the violation and the appropriate penalty. The invigilator who reports such alleged misconduct cannot be part of the disciplinary committee, as per the SOP.IIT-B sources had earlier told TOI that Wakode had been caught cheating close to the end of the exam and was, therefore, not given a fresh answer sheet.Police recorded the statements of around five students over the past three days, taking the total number of student witnesses questioned to 11-12. Some students told them that they saw a conversation between Wakode and Suryanarayan Doolla, accused of abetting the suicide, after the exam.Police have so far not found any material establishing the allegations levelled by Wakode’s parents of months-long harassment by Doolla.Police are examining security and frisking procedures at the exam hall to ascertain how a phone could have been carried inside.The investigation is also focused on reconstructing Wakode’s movements between the exam and the discovery of his body.
