Hyderabad: Radhika Vemula, mother of deceased PhD scholar Rohith Vemula and several others met with chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday, May 4, and sought justice over the Telangana police’s closure report on his suicide in 2016, which was filed last month. However, after the news broke out, Telangana director general of police Revi Gupta said that the investigation will continue as Rohith’s family has expressed some doubts over the police investigation.
According to the Congress party, Revanth promised to order an investigation into the case and assured her of justice for ROhith Vemula.
Family to challenge report
The family of University of Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula on Friday said it will legally contest the Telangana Police’s closure report in his 2016 suicide case.
His brother Raja Vemula claimed the district collector has to decide on the family’s SC status, prompting the police to say that they will conduct a further investigation.
In its closure report on Rohith Vemula’s death, the Telangana Police claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his “real caste” would be discovered.
Citing the doubts expressed by Rohith Vemula’s family, Telangana Director General of Police Ravi Gupta said in a statement late on Friday that a petition will be filed in the court concerned, requesting the magistrate to permit further investigations.
Raja Vemula told news channels that Telangana High Court gave an option to file a ‘protest petition’ in the lower court.
Whether Rohith Vemula belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community or not should come from the district collector of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, he said and asked how the police can say he was not an SC.
Meanwhile, police chief Gupta said the investigation officer in the case was the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhapur, and that the final closure report was prepared before November, based on the investigation conducted. The final closure report was officially filed in the jurisdictional court on March 21 by the investigation officer, he said in the statement.
In its closure report, the police also gave a clean chit to the accused, citing a lack of evidence with regard to the blame for Rohith’s suicide..
The university’s then vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, former BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP ex-MLC N Ramachander Rao, and some ABVP leaders were among the accused.
(With excerpts from PTI)
