VIJAYWADA/GUNTUR: Rohith Vemula, the scholar from University of Hyderabad (UoH) who committed suicide, is not a Dalit and the certificate has been obtained by fraudulent means, declared a review report prepared by a Guntur collector Kantilal Dande here on Tuesday. Further, a notice has been served to the Vemula family, seeking their response within 15 days, stating why the certificate should not be cancelled.
However, the Vemula family is gearing up for a legal battle seeking justice for Rohith.
The District Level Scrutiny Committee has submitted its final report stating that neither Rohith nor his mother Radhika were Dalits. They reportedly belong to Vaddera community which falls under the OBC (Other Backward Class) category. The committee has recommended the cancellation of the certificate issued to Rohith Vemula's family.
Speaking to Express, Rohith's younger brother Raja Vemula said that revenue officers have served notices on Feb 11 and the notices would be answered legally. "We will fight it out in the court," he added. Earlier, the family had alleged that Radhika was humiliated by the authorities during an inquiry into the caste status of Rohith asking her how she raised her kids.
The family members of Rohith have been alleging that the government was desperate to declare the young scholar as an OBC. "They (governments) are desperate to declare my son as OBC. I know what humiliation I have undergone being a Dalit in society,” said Radhika, Rohith's mother on his first death anniversary at the UoH entrance in Hyderabad recently.
The family members have been questioning the delay in the arrest of the accused, who have been booked under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and for abetment of Rohith's suicide.
It may be recalled that a commission constituted by the Union HRD ministry to probe into Rohith's death, stated that there was no record to establish the caste of the deceased and attributed his suicide to personal reasons. However, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman PL Punia had rejected the judicial commission's report as 'fake and fictitious', and said the deceased research scholar was a Dalit.