The closure report in the case that was filed under SC/ST (PoA) Act alleges that Rohith was not a Dalit and claims that he died because he was afraid that this would be discovered.
The Telangana police has filed a closure report in the case involving the death of University of Hyderabad (UoH) PhD scholar Rohith Vemula who died by suicide in January 2016 and absolved the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, and Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, ABVP leaders and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani. The report, which will be submitted in the Telangana High Court on Friday, May 3 said that Rohith did not belong to the Scheduled Caste category and speculated that he died by suicide fearing that his “real caste identity” would be discovered. It also alleges that the caste certificates of the family were forged without providing any evidence for the same. Interestingly, the report comes four months after the Congress government came into power in Telangana.
The report has been released just 10 days before Telangana votes in the Lok Sabha polls on May 13. Congress had extended support to the ‘Justice for Vemula campaign’ in 2016 with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi even that a law named Rohith Vemula Act would be implemented to “safeguard the right to education and dignity” for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and minorities. In fact, during his recent Bharat Jodo Yatra, he had invited Rohith’s mother Radhika Vemula to join the Congress.
However, neither the Telangana Congress nor the Central leadership has responded to the closure report so far. When contacted, leaders of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and relatives of Rohith Vemula, including his mother Radhika, refrained from issuing statements until the court hearing on Friday.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.