HYDERABAD/GUNTUR/NEW DELHI: The caste records of the deceased was found to be missing in school records. In his intermediate and college records, it was entered as Mala, which is an Scheduled Caste category. In a new twist to the suicide case of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula at University of Hyderabad, the Telangana state police has said that Rohith was not a Dalit and that he belonged to Vaddera caste which falls under the BC category. Though television channels went to town saying that the Telangana state police had submitted the same to the Hyderabad High court, senior police officials denied it and clarified that it was a "confidential report" from Madhapur ACP M Ramana Kumar to the Government Pleader (GP) for Home department.
Two weeks after Rohith's death, the Madhapur ACP wrote to the GP about the investigation so far wherein he mentioned that Rohith Vemula belonged to Vaddera caste which falls under the BC category and not SC and that this was based on the statements given by village tahsildar, family members etc. The investigation officer M Ramana Kumar, assistant commissioner of police, Madhapur, has stated that the recorded statements of Rohith’s father Vemula Naga Mani Kumar and paternal grandparents Vemula Raghavamma and Venkateshwarlu from Garazala notes have confirmed that the deceased belonged to Vaddera caste. The Sarpanch of the village Mahankali Seethamma also corroborated the same, states the report, a copy of which is with Express.
The caste certificates provided by tahsildar GVS Phaneendra Babu, Gurazala mandal, dated January 19, two days after Rohith’s suicide, also read that Vemula Rohith Chakravarthy belonged to Vaddera community. According to the investigation officer, the caste records of the deceased was missing in school records. In his intermediate and college records, it was entered as Mala, which comes under Scheduled Caste category. The IO also informed that the statement of Banala Dhanalakshmi, who is married to Rohith’s mother’s brother Banala Giridhar Kumar, said that they belonged to Vaddera caste. The tahsildar too, according to the IO, certified that Vemula Radhika and her two brothers are Vaddera. However, students of University of Hyderabad, produced a digitally certified document procured from Government of Andhra Pradesh’s Mee Seva centre, dated June 16, 2015, that stated Vemula Rohith Chakrvarthi belonged to Mala (SC) community.
On January 23, Rohith’s mother Radhika had issued a statement that she was informally adopted by a Vaddera(BC) family while her parents belonged to Mala(SC) community after she was abandoned at the age of five. “I got married to my divorced husband in 1985 and after giving birth to my last child, I separated from him due to personal reasons. I kept all 3 children with me and lived in SC Mala locality. We followed all the traditions and customs of SC community,” she had issued a clarification.
"This was a confidential document sent by the ACP to the GP and this was not submitted before the court. It was to apprise the High court about the investigation whenever the court would seek to know. The final report in the case will be submitted to the court, after completion of the investigation," a senior police official told Express.
In fact, he said that contrary to the statement of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani that the police were not allowed into the campus and that no doctor was present soon after Rohith committed suicide, the official said that the police officials rushed to the university, found the room open and saw the dead body while a doctor too was also present. Revenue officials in Guntur say they never verified Rohith’s Caste When Express contacted Guntur mandal revenue officials, who had issued an SC caste certificate to Rohith, they maintained that there were no documents certifying that Rohith belonged to Scheduled Caste.
It was in the year 2004, Rohith had first applied for the caste certificate and was issued the same. Since then, the same was being renewed every year. In June 2015, Rohit got a permanent caste certificate after applying through Mee Seva and the officials sanctioned SC certificate based on the old certificate. According to them, no documents or declarations were submitted by Rohith’s family members when they applied for the caste certificate for the first time in 2004. Based on this certificate issued, officials kept on renewing the caste certificate for him every year.
“There was never a thought of verifying as there was no such need,” said officials. Meanwhile, revenue officials of Gurazala mandal, the native place of Rohith, clarified that they do not have any records regarding the caste of Rohith Vemula as his family migrated to Guntur city several years ago. However, the officials added Rohith Vemula’s younger brother had applied for a belated birth certificate in 2014 and in the declaration form the parents mentioned ‘Vaddera’ as the caste.
Minister is Lying:
Addressing a press conference in Delhi on Friday, Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika and fellow PhD scholar from University of Hyderabad Dontha Prashanth called the Union Education Minister Smriti Irani’s speech in Parliament on the research scholar's suicide a set of "absolute lies". “This is not a TV serial. Bring out real facts, dont fabricate facts,” said Radhika Vemula at the press conference. They said the union minister had told blatant lies on the floor of the house regarding presence of a Dalit faculty member in the committee that expelled Rohith and four other scholars.
"This is yet another desperate attempt of the BJP government to wash their hands off the crime they committed by executing the social boycott order on the five Dalit research scholars that eventually led to the institutional murder of Rohith,” said Prashanth, reiterating their demand for promulgation of Rohith Act against discrimination of Dalits on campuses and removal of union minister Bandaru Dattatreya and UoH VC P Appa Rao from their posts.