Telangana Police on Friday filed a closure report in the Rohith Vemula death case and absolved the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, and Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leaders and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.
The report stated that Rohith committed suicide as he was stressed out for several reasons, including his poor performance on the academic front due to his political engagements on the campus and his mother arranging a fake Scheduled Caste (SC) certificate for him.
Hours after the closure report was filed, Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Ravi Gupta, however, ordered further probe into the Vemula’s death case after the deceased’s mother and brother expressed doubts about the closure report filed by the police earlier in the day.
“If the studies of the deceased were seen, it appeared that he was involved more in student political issues in the campus rather than in his studies. He discontinued his first Ph.D after pursuing it for 2 years and he joined another Ph.D which also did not progress much because of non academic activities,” the police report read.
According to the report, Rohith was aware of the fact that his mother had arranged an SC certificate for him and was worried that his reputation could get affected if his peers found out about it.
“In addition to this, the deceased himself is aware that he does not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure the same would put him to loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution,” the report read.
“Thus, the deceased had multiple issues worrying him which could have driven him to commit suicide. Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide,” the report added.
The report comes just 10 days before voting in Telangana for the Lok Sabha polls on May 13.
Rohith’s brother reacts
Hours after the Telangana Police submitted its closure report in the Telangana High Court, the deceased student’s brother expressed dissatisfaction.
He said, “Instead of investigating how my brother was targetted, harassed, and finally killed, police investigated his caste status.”
ROHITH’S SUICIDE
26-year-old Rohith died by suicide in his hostel room at Hyderabad Central University on January 17, 2016. The next day, protests erupted on the campus and spread to as far as Delhi, where the Modi government was forced to deny allegations of being anti-Dalit.
He was a member of the Ambedkar Students’ Association, which advocates for the rights of Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) students on the campus. He was one of five Dalit students who were protesting against their expulsion from the university’s housing facility.
The five faced allegations last year that they attacked a member of the ABVP, the student wing of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They all denied the charge and the university cleared them in an initial inquiry, but reversed its decision in December. The sociology department student’s friends used to describe him as a “hard-working”, “brilliant” and “kind-hearted” person.
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