The Mumbai Police chargesheet into the suicide of IIT Bombay student Darshan Solanki has revealed that he faced large scale caste discrimination when his classmates got to know of his caste.

Filed on Tuesday in the Special Court hearing cases hearing offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the chargesheet has the statement made by Solanki’s mother. She said her son had told his sister sometime in December 2022 over a call that his fellow students’ behaviour to him underwent a sea change once they got to he was a Dalit.

Solanki had died by suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the hostel in the IIT Bombay campus on February 12, 2023, a day after semester exams ended. Aman Khatri, a fellow student, who has been named in the chargesheet is out on bail after his arrest on the charges of abetment to suicide.

Khatri had allegedly threatened to kill Solanki after the latter had spoken offensively about his religion. Solanki’s mother told police of the change in behaviour of his friends when they came to know of his caste. Solanki had again raised this when he came on vacation for Makar Sakranti in January 2023. On February 12, he spoke to his mother on the phone around 12:20 pm and said that he would visit home on February 14, and they should invite their relatives for a get-together. Two hours later, his father got a call that Solanki had committed suicide.

He told his parents that he was enjoying his studies at the Institute but some students taunted him that he was getting free education. The chargesheet include statements of 55 witnesses, including some students and professors from IIT Bombay.  

Dalit students continue to face the unrelenting pressure of caste discrimination in elite institutions in engineering, medicine and the humanities. Many have died by suicide as a result.   

Top poll strategist and the man behind Congress campaigns in the recent held Karnataka elections Sunil Kanugolu has been appointed as the chief advisor to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with cabinet minister rank.

Congress after coming to the power in Karnataka after marking a landslide victory officially took charge after Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar were sworn in as the CM and Deputy Chief Ministers respectively on May 20.

Amid the finalisation of the new cabinet formation in the state, the CM office has shared the news of Kanugolu’s appointment as the chief advisor.

Kanugolu, known to be a champion strategist for political parties for political parties was born in the Ballari district of Karnataka.

Congress which secured a huge mandate of 135 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections was said to be because of its campaigns that hit success reaching out to the masses.

Reports said, Kanugolu’s micro-management strategies was what Congress relied heavily on, he was the part of the core strategy building team of the party contributing in the making of catchy campaigns for the party to encircle the BJP during elections.

Some of the key campaigns were PayCM, 40 percent commission among others.

Kanugolu is a key member of  the Congress Task Force 2024, who got appointed in May last year, a team created to execute the Nav Sankalp declaration of the grand old party after its brainstorming session held in Udaipur last year.

The Task Force also includes senior leaders of the party Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and others.  

Kanugolu was earlier associated with the sharp witted poll strategist Prashant Kishor and was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign.

Kanugolu has earlier also worked for the DMK and AIADMK.

As per reports, the data driven strategist was also behind the planning of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

In yet another pursuit of name change of the cities, the Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra will now be known as Ahilyanagar, announced state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday.

The district has been renamed after the 18^th century ruler of then Indore state Ahilyadevi Holkar.

CM Shinde while speaking at an event to mark the 298^th birth anniversary of Ahilyadevi or famously known as Ahilyabai at Choundi in Ahmednagar district, the birthplace of the erstwhile ruler, announced the decision.

Ahilya Bai was born to Mankoji Shinde and Sushila Shinde, a Marathi Hindu family.  

Shinde while addressing the gathering said his government works on the ideals of governance that was directed by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Ahilyadevi Holkar. Hence, as per the wish of all the people, the decision of renaming the district has been taken.

Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis praising Ahilyadevi said, without her the Kashi Vishwanath temple and other temples of Lord Shiva would not have existed. Fadnavis further termed  the current BJP and Shinde headed Shiv Sena goverment to a Hindutva government.

It is said that at around 1780 CE, the Kashi Vishwanath temple was built by Ahilyadevi Holkar.

Fadnavis also put stress on the earlier decision of their government renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad in the state.

Earlier, Auranagabad was renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv by the Shinde-Fadnavis government.

Ahmednagar is a district formed in 1822, situated 120 km northeast of Pune in Maharashtra and is said to have named after the 15^th century ruler of the region Ahmad Nizam Shah.

Ahilyadevi Holkar, the former Queen of Malwa has the credits on her name for the construction of many famous temples across India.

There many other structures named after her such as the Ahilyabai Holkar stadium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh along with a bus stand after her name in Uttar Pradesh and other such structures.