IIT Bombay exam AI case: what campus students should do

The IIT Bombay exam AI case is not a reason to panic on your own campus. It is a reason to know three things in writing: what happens if a phone is found in an exam, where a student can complain if they feel targeted, and which helpline to call if a week turns heavy.

On 18 September 2026, Sahil Wakode, a second-year B.Tech student in Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay, was found dead in his hostel room. IIT Bombay said he had been found using a mobile phone in a mid-semester exam and had uploaded the question paper to an AI chatbot. The institute said no disciplinary action was started, that the instructor and head of department spoke to him, and that he was told the incident would not wreck his academic career.

On 19 September, Mumbai Police registered a first information report after a complaint from the family. A faculty member who was invigilating, named in reports as Suryanarayana Doolla (spellings vary across papers), was booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and on an abetment charge. The probe later moved to the Crime Branch. The family alleged casteist remarks over months. The director denied caste-based discrimination and said caste details of students are not shown to faculty in the normal academic process. On 20 September, the IIT Bombay Faculty Forum said the invigilator followed Senate-approved exam rules. These are competing claims. A court and the police file will sort them. This page does not pick a verdict.

If you are in distress right now, stop reading the case and call. Tele-MANAS: 14416 or 1800-891-4416 (24×7, government of India, several languages). KIRAN: 1800-599-0019 (24×7). iCall (TISS): 9152987821 (Mon–Sat). Campus counselling, if your college has a centre, is usually free. You do not need a “good reason” to walk in.

First, the basic words

An invigilator is the teacher or staff member who watches an exam hall. Academic malpractice means breaking exam rules — a phone, notes, talking, or sending the paper to anyone, including a chatbot. An FIR is a police first information report. It starts an investigation. It is not a conviction. The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is a criminal law meant to punish caste-based abuse and related offences. Abetment is a separate criminal idea: that someone pushed or helped another person towards a death. Police book a person when a complaint plus facts meet the legal test on paper. Guilt is decided later.

AI tools such as ChatGPT are software that answer questions in ordinary language. Using them to study before an exam is common. Using them inside a closed exam, with a phone, is treated as cheating in almost every Indian university rule book. That line is not new. What is new is how easy the upload has become.

What the public record actually says

• Date of death: 18 September 2026, hostel on the Powai campus. Department: Energy Science and Engineering, second year.
• Institute line: phone in the hall, paper uploaded to an AI tool, counselling by instructor and HoD, no formal punishment started.
• Family line in the FIR: caste abuse over about three months; threat language; the exam incident as the last shock. Father named in some reports as Chakradhar, in others as Ravindra. Use the FIR copy, not WhatsApp forwards.
• Police: FIR on 19 September; Crime Branch from late 19 September; ACP-rank officer to lead.
• Faculty Forum on 20 September: condolences to the family; stand-by for the named professor on exam-duty grounds.
• Campus context reported by students and papers: this was not the first student death on that campus in 2026. Counts differ across outlets (second in the same hostel in recent months, or third this year). Do not treat a TV number as a government statistic.

Primary reporting sits with The Hindu’s 19 September report and the follow-up on the Crime Branch transfer. Institute statements should be read on IIT Bombay’s own site when they are posted. WhatsApp PDFs that look official but have no letterhead are junk.

Who this page is for, and who should skip

This page is for Class 12 students heading to any college, and for current hostel students who sit closed-book mid-sems. It is also for parents who only hear the TV version.

Skip this page if you want a courtroom scorecard or a “IIT is finished” thread. The case is live. Comments on an FIR are not evidence. Also skip any reel that names the student as a punchline.

What you should do this week

1. Read your own exam code. Search your handbook for “malpractice”, “unfair means”, or “mobile phone”. Write down the steps: who writes the report, who you can meet after the hall, whether a first offence can be a warning. If the PDF is missing from the website, mail the exam cell and keep the mail.

2. Leave the phone outside. If the hall allows a bag at the back, switch the phone off before you enter. Do not carry a second device “in case”. An AI tab on a watch is still a device.

3. If you are stopped in a hall: stay in the room until the invigilator finishes the note. Ask for the written charge. Do not argue caste, rank, or “everyone does it” in the doorway. Ask to meet the course instructor and the head of department the same day. Take a friend if the rules allow. Write what was said, with time.

4. If you feel targeted for caste, gender, disability, or language: use the official cell, not only a group chat. IITs and most universities have an SC/ST cell, an Internal Complaints Committee, and a Dean of Student Affairs. UGC also expects a grievance process. File on paper or email so there is a date stamp. Police is a separate track if the facts fit a criminal section. One does not cancel the other.

5. If a friend looks shut down after an exam or a meeting: sit with them. Walk them to counselling. If they talk about wanting to disappear, treat it as urgent. Call Tele-MANAS 14416. Do not leave them alone “to sleep it off” if they have said they are unsafe.

6. Do not pay a “campus case consultant”. No Telegram lawyer needs your UPI for an FIR that already exists.

AI in exams: the rule that will not change this semester

Colleges will keep using AI in labs and assignments. Closed exams will keep banning phones. Those two facts can sit together. If your department wants AI in a take-home test, it has to say so on the question paper. If it does not say so, assume the old rule: no network, no model, no screenshot.

A useful habit for the rest of the term: when you use a model for homework that allows it, keep the prompt and the check you did by hand. Recruiters already ask what you verified. Hiding the tool is the weaker story. That point is also on our page AI safety in plain words for students.

What this case does not prove yet

It does not prove that every invigilator at IIT Bombay acted in bad faith. It does not prove the opposite. It does not tell you the punishment chart for your own college. It does not mean a first-year in a state university will face the same police process. Copy-paste outrage helps no one sitting a mid-sem on Tuesday.

What it does show is a pattern students already know: exam shame is fast, official process is slow, and hostel rooms are where the gap is felt. The gap is why you save the helpline before you need it.

Campus Reality does not take fees from students or families. If a date or name on this page is wrong against an official notice, write to the contact page with the source. The police file and the institute circular win over this explainer.