Ethics · 27 Aug 2026

IIT Delhi inquiry panel chronology

Arrange the following events related to the IIT Delhi student suicide inquiry in chronological order:

  1. IIT Delhi announced a seven-member external inquiry panel that included former Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar.
  2. MSc Physics student Rishikesh Kumar died by suicide.
  3. Students objected to Ashok Kumar's inclusion on the panel, citing his past remarks linking protests to "radicalisation."
  4. IIT Delhi agreed to reconstitute the panel's composition.
A2-1-3-4
B1-2-4-3
C2-3-1-4
D1-3-2-4
This question is based on: Can an Institution Investigate Itself With a Panel It Can't Yet Trust?
Take this in full test mode → Instructions for 27 Aug 2026
About this question

Why in news

Following the death by suicide of 31-year-old Rishikesh Kumar on August 22, 2026 - reported by students to be the eighth such death at IIT Delhi since 2023 - the institute's inquiry panel had to be reconstituted after student protests over a named member's past remarks.

Why for UPSC

Chronology questions test whether an aspirant has genuinely tracked a developing institutional story rather than absorbing only its final outcome - here, understanding that the panel's flawed composition was itself a response that came after the tragedy, not before it.

Prelims summary

The sequence - death, panel announcement, student objection, panel reconstitution - illustrates how sustained protest, not proactive institutional judgment, forced the correction of IIT Delhi's initial inquiry panel composition.

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