Sridhar Vembu—Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu publicly backed IIT Bombay professor booked under SC/ST Act after student's caste-discrimination suicide, called Act 'weaponised'
Following the September 19, 2026 suicide of 22-year-old IIT Bombay student Sahil Ravindra Wakode -- whose parents alleged a professor, Suryanarayana Doolla, had used casteist slurs against him for months -- Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu publicly reshared and endorsed a post arguing the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was being 'weaponised' against Doolla, stating 'Prof Suryanarayana Doolla should not be subject to this' and calling for the case to be withdrawn. Vembu posted this as a personal statement on X, not as an official Zoho position.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Racial Justice | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.572 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
LiveMint: Zoho's Sridhar Vembu backs Prof Doolla booked over 'casteist slurs', calls SC/ST Act 'weaponised'
LiveMint reported Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu publicly backed IIT Bombay professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who was booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following student Sahil Ravindra Wakode's suicide, arguing the Act was being weaponised against the professor.