 "Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattetreya under fire for Hyderabad student's suicide")
Union Labor minister Bandaru Dattetreya has been named along with three others over the suicide of a research scholar at Hyderabad University. Charges related to abetment to suicide and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have been filed amid protests in Hyderabad and Delhi by student unions.
TRS MP K. Kavitha on Monday said the pressure by two union ministers on University of Hyderabad vice chancellor led to suspension of five Dalit research scholars and one of them committed suicide.
Terming the suicide of Rohith Vemula as "unfortunate', she said union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattetreya should not have intervened into the campus politics.
"He wrote to (union minister for human resources development) Smriti Irani in support of ABVP students and this brought pressure on the university vice chancellor and he suspended five students of Ambedkar Students Union," she said.
Meanwhile Daattetreya has denied any role in the fight between the students.
"I had received a representation from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leaders that they were beaten up by anti-national and anti-social elements. I forwarded the same to the ministry. I don't know what action was taken on this," Dattatreya told reporters.
Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said for many days the suspended students had been staging protest in the open but neither the central ministers nor the university authorities came to their rescue.
25-year-old Rohith Vemula, who belonged to Guntur district of Amravati, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff between two student groups in August last year.
The five researchers were supported by 10 other students' outfits on the campus including ASA, Students Federation of India, Dalit Students Union and National Students Association among others.
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On Sunday, the students from each of the outfits had started relay hunger strike asking the university administration to take back the students all of whom hailed from backward socio-economic backgrounds.
The students protested against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya.
The students demanded the revoking of the suspension of the five Dalit research scholars. They also demanded Dattatreya's apology for interfering in University matters and branding the students of University of Hyderabad as casteists, anti-nationals and extremists.