Rohith Vemula case: ‘Fake caste certificate,’ Telangana police close case, issue clean chit to accused

Police in the south Indian state of Telangana on Friday (May 3) gave a clean chit to all accused in the 2016 Rohith Vemula death case, saying that Vemula did not belong to scheduled caste and he committed suicide because he was afraidhis real identity would be revealed.

Police said Vemula used forged documents to claim he belonged to the scheduled caste.

All accused, including then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, MLC N Ramchander Rao and University of Hyderabad Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, besides Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani and leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, have been given a clean chit.

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Telangana police submitted their observations in the closure report in the Telangana High Court, following which Vemula’s brother expressed dissatisfaction.

“Instead of investigating how my brother was targeted, harassed, and finally killed, police investigated his caste status,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the high court has asked Rohith’s brother to approach the lower court to seek relief and file a protest petition.

Vemula’s ‘false death certificate’

The police report said that Rohith’s mother had arranged a fake SC certificate for him, because of which he was worried that his reputation might get affected if the reality came out.

“In addition to this, the deceased himself is aware that he does not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him an 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 police report said.

It also claimed that Rohith was more involved in political activities in the university and not in studies.

“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 PhD after pursuing it for two years and he joined another PhD which also did not progress much because of non-academic activities,” the report read.

The 2016 Rohith Vemula death case

Rohith Vemula died by suicide in 2016 in a hostel room at Hyderabad Central University.

He, along withfourstudents reportedly belonging to the scheduled caste, wasprotesting their expulsion from the university’s housing facility.

Following his death, massive protests erupted at the college’s campus, which forced even the union government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to issue a statement denying the allegations of discrimination against any caste.

All five students faced allegations that they had attacked a member of the ABVP, the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The universityinits preliminaryinvestigationhad acquitted all of them but later reversed their decision in December.

(With inputs from agencies)