India, Sept. 22 -- Former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala expressed his support on Tuesday for Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay's professor Suryanarayana Doolla, who was suspended from his post of Dean (Student Affairs) on Monday amid an investigation into the death of 20-year-old student.

Poonawala said that he stands with Doolla and added that allegations against him cannot become "a verdict".

"Caste angle can't be injected to cover up for cheating. Villainising a teacher before the facts are established can permanently damage his reputation even if he is later cleared," Poonawalla wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

He added that the student's family "deserves answers" but the professor "deserve...