Four-member IIMA committee probing student’s death seeks inputs from faculty

The panel, which was set up last month by Board of Governors (BoG) Chairperson Pankaj Patel, includes alumni and BoG members. The members of external committee are founder and chairman of MakeMyTrip Deep Kalra (PGP 92 batch), senior partner emeritus with McKinsey Ramesh Mangaleswaran (Board member and from PGP 93 batch), Managing Director of Nayan Parikh & Consultants Nayan Parikh (PGP 81 batch) and co-founder partner of Bharucha & Partners Alka Bharucha (Board member), as reported by The Indian Express on November 15.

The panel, through Dean Faculty Prof Satish Deodhar, has reached out to the IIMA faculty members stating that if anyone “wants to provide input and ideas to the committee members, they can be reached out for their emails,” said the sources.

“The committee has already started consultations with a cross section of faculty and students. It has also received all documentation and is expected to submit its report this month,” sources at IIMA told The Indian Express.

The panel is not only probing into “all the factors that may have resulted in the unfortunate event on September 26” but is also reviewing the practices that go into organising student-led events, including nature and “extent of involvement of faculty and institute leadership”.

Bhukya was  also the coordinator of the institute’s annual management event — The Red Brick Summit.

Sources said that after examining all the factors, the committee will “propose corrective actions and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for future events, understand current systems, processes and infrastructure to ensure mental well being of students as well as propose measures that will ensure best practices in class systems, processes and infrastructure for mental well being at IIMA”. The committee was constituted following the demands by both the student community and the group of 17 senior faculty members to investigate the circumstances surrounding the student’s death.

On October 17, the 17 senior faculty members had written to the BoG Chairman Pankaj Patel urging him to constitute an external committee comprising of “individuals with unquestionable integrity and relevant expertise to undertake an impartial investigation/inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Akshith’s death…” .

The demand for a panel was reiterated and highlighted in the letter written by the Students’ Affair Council (SAC) on October 12, reported by The Indian Express. The external panel also met these 17 faculty members and SAC members separately on the campus last month.