HYDERABAD: Almost 23 months after Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar of the University of Hyderabad, allegedly committed suicide in his hostel room on the campus, the Cyberabad police is all set to submit final investigation report in the court.
The police is likely to drop all charges against former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, UoH vice-chancellor Podile Appa Rao, BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao and a few ABVP activists who were charged with abetment to suicide under relevant sections of the IPC and SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act.
Speaking on the sidelines after a press meet in his office on Friday, Cyberabad police commissioner Sandeep Shandilya said: ‘We were waiting for a report from the revenue department as to whether Rohith belonged to the SC community or not. Because of that our investigation got delayed,’’ he explained.
He said the police had received a report from the Guntur district collector that Rohith didn’t belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.
“Now we have written to our legal adviser for clarification. Once that comes, we will submit a final report,” Shandilya said responding to a query.‘’As the collector’s report says that the student was a BC and not an SC, the SC & ST Act section would be dropped. The Union minister, the vice-chancellor and the MLC had no role in the suspension of the student as claimed by a certain group, which would be conveyed to the court through our report. In fact, the suspension of Rohith and others was done during the tenure of another vice-chancellor and Appa Rao has reduced the suspension period. That is what we found during the probe,” said another police officer.