23, Jan 2016

Jan 23, 2016 – Namrata Biji Ahuja and Nitin Mahajan | New Delhi
State government confirms Rohith was a dalit
Trouble is brewing for the Narendra Modi government as the Telangana government report sent to the Centre has reaffirmed that the deceased student, who committed suicide at Hyderabad Central University, was a dalit and the case comes under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The state government report, that has been sent to the social justice ministry and Union home ministry, removes any doubt and says 26-year-old Rohith Vermula was a dalit scholar. The report shares details of the complaint and the FIR where it is alleged that “Rohith under went mental agony and could not bear the atrocities, humiliation, harrassment, insults and injustice” which he was subject to at the “instigation and abetment” of those named the FIR, that caused his death. The two ministries are studying the report and the social justice ministry, that is the nodal ministry on issues concerning SC/STs, has taken serious note.
The HRD ministry, on the basis of the report of its fact-finding team, has decided to set up a judicial commission to look into the sequence of events leading to Rohith’s suicide and submit its report within three months.
The state government report to the home and social justice ministries also encloses the letter written by the minister of state for labour and accused in the case, Bandaru Dattatreya, to HRD minister Smriti Irani on August 17, where he alleged the “university administration had become a mute spectator” to events where the university had become a “den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics” when a large section of students held a protest against the execution of Yaqub Memon and clashed with the ABVP over this issue. Rohith’s friends and a section of students have alleged that Rohith’s suspension along with four other students followed the minister’s letter and the clash with the ABVP leader which led to his depression and eventual suicide.