Fact-Check: This Exchange Between Rajdeep Sardesai and IIT-B Professor Is Fake
We found out that the conversation shown in the post is fake.
advertisement
A post is going viral on social media, claiming to show a conversation between India Today anchor Rajdeep Sardesai and an IIT Bombay professor, Rajkumar Pant.
The viral post shows the following conversation, written exactly as seen in the claim.
Rajdeep Sardesai: If Prof. Doolla is that good, why are students protesting against him?
Prof. Rajkumar Pant: Students didn't know the whole story. They only heard that a student was no more, so they started protesting. Now show me one student protesting against Prof. Doolla.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Still, the boy just cheated. He was a Dalits ? It's not a big deal.
Prof. Rajkumar Pant: So what do you want? If a Prof. catches a student cheating, should they first check his caste before taking action? What do you want? Tell me.
After that, Rajdeep Sardesai smiled and said, "It's time for a break."
The claim: According to the post, Sardesai abruptly ended the interview when the professor asked him, "If a professor catches a student cheating, should they first check his caste before taking action? What do you want? Tell me."
The video went viral amid protests that erupted over the suicide of an IIT Bombay student, Sahil Wakode.
Is it true?: No, the claim is false. The post does not show a real conversation between Rajdeep Sardesai and Professor Rajkumar Pant.
How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the image and found the original interview with IIT Bombay professor Rajkumar Pant by Rajdeep Sardesai, uploaded by the official YouTube channel of India Today.
In the video, they discuss the happenings following the suicide of the student.
Pant defends his colleague, Professor Doolla and says that he was "vilified merely for performing his duty".
We went through the entire video and couldn't find the conversation from the viral post.
What happened recently:
An IIT Bombay student, Sahil Wakode, lost his life to suicide on 18 September 2026, hours after he was caught using his phone in an examination hall.
Wakode's parents alleged that their son had been subject to caste-based discrimination and harassment at the college and filed a first information report (FIR) which states the name of Professor Doolla, the invigilator who caught his phone in the examination hall.
Conclusion: The viral claim is fake, as the post does not show a real conversation between Rajdeep Sardesai and Professor Rajkumar Pant.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)