Rohith Vemula not Dalit, says police in closure report; accused absolved of all charges
PTC News Desk: The Telangana Police have filed a closure report in the Rohith Vemula case, absolving all accused of all charges. This comes eight years after massive protests and political rows over Vemula's death, prompting the Modi government to clarify that it was not anti-Dalit.
According to the report, the University of Hyderabad student was not only not from the Scheduled Castes and his certificate was fake, but he also killed himself out of fear of being exposed.
"The deceased himself was aware that he did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother had got him an SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would result in a loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution," the Telangana Police said in the closure report.
"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," it added.
The accused in the case included then-University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao, as well as BJP heavyweights such as Secunderabad MP and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, MLC N Ramchender Rao, and Union Minister Smriti Irani, who held the education ministry at the time. All of them have been cleared of all charges.
The closure report was filed on March 21, but it was made public only 10 days before Telangana's 17 Lok Sabha seats vote in the fourth phase on May 13. Telangana presently has a Congress government; formerly, it was run by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi. The Congress had supported the protests for justice following the research scholar's death, and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi had also highlighted the matter in Parliament.
Rohith Vemula's family, which claimed that he killed himself after being harassed on the basis of his caste identity by members of the BJP-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and others, has accused the police of focusing on the student's caste status rather than the treatment he allegedly received.
"Instead of investigating how my brother was targeted, harassed, and finally killed, police investigated his caste status," stated Vemula's brother.
- With inputs from agencies
