IIT B student's iPhone locked, access still unavailable: Parents' statements recorded
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Tuesday recorded the statements of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode’s parents as part of the investigation into his death. Investigators are also seeking access to Sahil’s locked iPhone. Technical assistance is being sought to unlock the device, which may provide further information, including his digital communications and ChatGPT history.
The Crime Branch, which took over the probe on September 19, is investigating allegations of caste-based harassment and alleged abetment of suicide.
The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has also been invoked following the family’s allegations.PARENTS TO BE QUESTIONED AGAIN
The statements recorded on Tuesday are not being treated as the final account from the family. Investigators intend to seek further information from Sahil’s parents and record additional statements as the inquiry develops.
The importance of the parents’ account lies not only in what they learnt after their son’s death, but also in what, if anything, Sahil may have told them about his life at the institute.
The family has alleged that Sahil faced caste-based harassment. IIT Bombay, however, has said that no complaint had been submitted by him to its SC/ST Cell or to the administration.THE LOCKED iPhone
Another object now before the investigators is Sahil’s iPhone.
According to sources, the phone is locked and technical assistance is being sought to gain access to it. Investigators believe that its contents may help establish a more complete chronology of events, including communications and other digital records.
Among the information investigators are interested in establishing is whether Sahil had used ChatGPT and, if so, what his interaction with the service may have been. His ChatGPT history, if accessible, could potentially help investigators verify or examine claims being made about the examination episode.
That evidence, however, is not presently available to investigators, as the device remains locked.
The distinction is important: claims concerning what may be found on the phone cannot at this stage be treated as established facts.
Access to the device and subsequent examination of its contents would be required before any such material could be assessed.THE SC/ST CELL AND COUNSELLING CENTRE
Investigators are now turning their attention to the institutional avenues that were available to Sahil.
IIT Bombay has an SC/ST Cell as well as a Student Counseling Center. The Crime Branch intends to write to both departments to determine whether Sahil had ever approached either of them, whether he had lodged a complaint and whether he had sought counselling in the past.
The answer could help investigators establish whether there was an earlier record of any difficulty faced by him at the institute.
It may also answer a question that has acquired importance after his death: whether concerns later raised by his family had, in some form, appeared during Sahil’s own time at IIT Bombay.
For the investigators, the records of these departments will therefore form another piece of the larger chronology.
Much of the public discussion around Sahil’s death has, in a matter of days, settled upon competing accounts of what happened. One concerns the examination and alleged use of ChatGPT; another concerns the allegations of caste-based harassment made by his family; and a third concerns the institute’s systems for identifying and responding to students in distress.
The iPhone has not yet been unlocked. The parents are to be questioned further. The SC/ST Cell and counselling records are yet to be examined.
And until those pieces are brought together, the circumstances that preceded Sahil Wakode’s death remain under investigation.- EndsPublished By: Rishab ChauhanPublished On: Sep 22, 2026 19:58 IST
