HYDERABAD: The Telangana police late on Friday decided to file a petition in the “court concerned” to permit further investigation into the Rohith Vemula suicide case. Earlier in the day, the Gachibowli police here filed a closure report before the Telangana High Court citing lack of evidence in the case related to the 2016 suicide of University of Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith and stated that he did not belong to a Scheduled Caste community. The HC then disposed of the writ petitions related to the case.
In a press note issued on Friday night, Telangana DGP Ravi Gupta said, “As some doubts have been expressed by the mother of Rohith Vemula on the investigation conducted, it has been decided to conduct further investigation into the case.”
More than eight years after Rohith’s suicide in January 2016, which sparked widespread protests across the nation, the police, in their closure report before Telangana HC, stated the reasons for suicide are personal and no one abetted it. “The deceased himself was aware that he does not belong to Scheduled Caste. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would put him to loss of his academic degrees,” the report said.
Many were accused in the case, including the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, former Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and the then VC of UoH P Appa Rao.
The closure report was filed in March before the jurisdictional court, four months after the Congress came to power in the state. After Rohith died by suicide in NRS hostel room on January 17, 2016, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited the UoH hostel, when protests were at the peak. In 2023, the grand old party said it would bring in a ‘Rohith Vemula Act’ to redress discrimination faced by SC, ST, OBC and minority students in educational institutions.
‘Did not belong to SC community’
The police in their closure report filed before the court said that Rohith did not belong to an SC community. “He was involved more in student political issues than in his studies,” the report said.
UoH students demand fresh investigation into Rohith suicide
Reacting to the closure report, TPCC senior vice-president G Niranjan said that it was shocking that the police informed the court that they were closing the Rohith Vemula’s suicide case. “We appeal to the state government to order a re-enquiry,” he said.
Telangana DGP Ravi Gupta, in his press note, later clarified that the closure report was prepared before November 2023 based on the investigation conducted.
Immediately after the closure report was out, students of UoH protested inside the university campus on Friday night and demanded a fresh probe into the death of Rohith. It may be recalled here that a section of the students of UoH protested for over a month after the death of Rohith, alleging that the authorities and politicians were responsible for his death.
However, the police in their closure report mentioned the views of the UoH Council. The report added: “This report conclusively decided the caste of Vemula Rohith Chakravarthy and his family members as Vaddera, falling under BC-A category and it was found that they had obtained SC caste certificates fraudulently.”
Rohith died by suicide in NRS hostel room on January 17, 2016, which sparked widespread protesters. The followers of Rohith blamed the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and the then MP Bandaru Dattatreya and then V-C P Appa Rao for the death of Rohith. The students alleged that Rohith took the extreme step due to “harassment and atrocities” of the then V-C. The then BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao was also accused in the case.
The entire issue started with Rohith and four other students, who conducted a programme in memory of a terrorist Yakub Memon, who was hanged in 2015. The issue further precipitated when they went to the room of Nandanam Susheel Kumar and beat him for his comments on Facebook, the closure report said.
As such, the caste of deceased and other students was not the issue, the report added. Rohith belonged to Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), which staged a protest against ABVP students attack on Montage Film Society in 2015. At that time Nandanam Susheel Kumar, a PhD student, was the president of ABVP. He had posted a message on Facebook against ASA students. When ABVP and the ASA students locked horns over the social media post, the former alleged that BJP leader N Ramachander Rao entered the university and organised a movement against ASA. The ASA allegation was that the then MP Bandaru Dattatreya wrote a letter to the then HRD Minister Smriti Irani in favour of ABVP students without verifying the facts of the case.
During the tussle between the students of ABVP and ASA, the university constituted a committee and expelled Rohith and four other students from the hostel. However, they were not expelled from pursuing their study and receiving their scholarship.
(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call Sneha Foundation - 04424640050, Tele Manas - 14416 (available 24x7) or iCall, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' helpline - 02225521111, which is available Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 10 pm.)
