 "Rohith Vemula, Hyderabad University")
A judicial commission set up by the Human Resource Development Ministry to probe the suicide of Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vermula has found that the 26-year-old student did not belong to the Scheduled Caste community, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
The one-man probe panel headed by former Allahabad High Court judge A K Roopanwal was set up in January by then HRD Minister Smriti Irani to look into the issue. He submitted his report to the University Grants Commission in the first week of August, according to sources.
Roopanwal did not deny submitting the report, but declined to comment on his findings. “I cannot answer your questions. Please direct all your questions on the contents of the report to the government,” he was quoted as telling the newspaper.
The finding that Vemula was not a lower caste or Dalit is of particular significance to Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and HCU vice-chancellor Appa Rao, as both were named in the FIR lodged by the police under the SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act for abetting his suicide.
Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Thawarchand Gehlot had earlier raised questions about his caste and stated that Rohit belonged to Vaddera community, a caste which falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
But Vemula's brother Raja rejected the findings of the probe. He said, “We lived like Dalits. We were raised in a Dalit community. Yes, my father was from a backward class, but whatever we know is from our experience of living like a Dalit. We have been discriminated against all our lives. Rohit referred to this in his letter too.”
According to The Indian Express, the Roopanwal Commission’s finding is at odds with what Guntur District Collector Kantilal Dande’s report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) stating that Vemula was, in fact, a Dalit.
The university’s executive panel had in November 2015 expelled five students, all said to be Dalits, from the hostel and barred their access to public places on campus. They were, however, allowed to attend lectures and pursue their research. They were punished for allegedly assaulting a student leader belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a national students’ organisation that owes allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
On January 17, 2016 Vermula committed suicide. His suicide note referred to his birth as a fatal accident. “My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past,” the note recovered by police stated.
