Mumbai: The parents of IIT-B student Sahil Wakode alleged on Wednesday morning that they had been driven out of Mumbai late Tuesday night in a “private car” despite repeatedly telling the driver they intended to remain in the city and begin a hunger strike outside the Powai institute. By early morning, the family said they had reached the Karanja Lad area of Washim district in Vidarbha. On Wednesday evening, however, the parents told TOI they were out of Mumbai and had no plans to return.The family, accompanied by their advocate Nikhil Kamble, had on Tuesday evening spoken to the media outside the crime branch office in Bandra and later outside the IIT-B campus in Powai.According to Sahil’s father, Ravindra Wakode, at some point in Powai after leaving the IIT-B gate, they were asked by men not in uniform to shift to another vehicle. “They said we needed to go somewhere. A police car was following us.” The advocate too sat along with them. “I don’t know names of officers who were in the car, they were not in uniform,” he said.Wakode said the family repeatedly asked the driver where they were being taken. “Earlier he kept saying, ‘Don’t worry.’ Later, he said, ‘I am dropping you home’,” Wakode said, adding they were also tired and sleepy.The family claimed they made it clear they did not want to return home and planned to begin a hunger strike in the morning.Wakode claimed police vehicles initially followed the private car but were no longer visible after the vehicle entered Samruddhi Expressway. “We then told the driver we wanted to use the washroom and got off the vehicle (at Karanja Lad),” he said.On Wednesday morning, Wakode said the family was returning to Mumbai and that he remained determined to begin the hunger strike outside IIT-B. “I want justice for my son,” he said. By evening, though, he said he would not return.
