Hyderabad: The Telangana government has moved to reopen the investigation into the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the University of Hyderabad research scholar whose death in 2016 sparked nationwide protests over caste discrimination in higher educational institutions. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka confirmed that the government has filed a note in the High Court seeking directions to reopen the case.
“We have already filed a note in the High Court asking the court to give direction to reopen the case. And we will not leave anybody involved in the case,” Vikramarka stated during a press conference held at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in New Delhi.
His remarks came in the backdrop of the recent appointment of Ramchander Rao as the president of the Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rao, who was a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) at the time, had been named as one of the accused in the original case following Vemula’s death.
Taking strong exception to Rao’s appointment, Vikramarka said, “It shows that whoever goes against Adivasis and whoever goes against Dalits will be rewarded by the BJP. The BJP has to apologise to the nation. Is targeting Dalits the qualification for you to appoint someone as president?”
Rohith Vemula, who identified as a Dalit, was a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad when he died by suicide in January 2016. His death triggered widespread outrage and demonstrations across the country, bringing to light systemic caste-based discrimination in academia.
Following his death, a case of abetment of suicide was registered, along with charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The accused included the then Vice-Chancellor Apparao Podile, then Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, then MLC N Ramchander Rao, and three students of the university—Krishna Chaitanya, N Susheel Kumar, and N Diwakar.
However, in May 2024, eight years after Vemula’s death, the Telangana police filed a closure report that absolved all the accused. The report controversially stated that Vemula was not a Dalit, but belonged to an Other Backward Class (OBC), and cited this as a reason for closing the case.
Vikramarka also announced that the Telangana government, acting on the call given by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, would soon enact the Rohith Vemula Act to address and prevent discrimination in educational institutions. “We are on the job and we have given it to the legal department to vet it properly and thoroughly so that it will not face any sort of legal challenge in the future,” he said.
Describing Vemula’s suicide as an “institutional murder,” the deputy chief minister added, “A youngster, who had reached the level of PhD… a youngster who had dreams of living and leading a colourful life had gone to the extent of taking a decision of ending his life. Just think, why are these kinds of things driving them to take the extreme step? Is it not an institutional murder?”