Union Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya has said that had “nothing to do with” Rohit’s death but he did write to the Hyderabad University seeking action against the Dalit students.
In a statement to The News Minute on Monday, BJP Spokesperson Krishna S. Rao said that he was conveying the union labour’s statement to the media. Rao told The News Minute that Bandaru Dattatreya had “nothing to do with (Rohith’s death), except forward the ABVP students’s representation to the ministry of human resources development.
Along with Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Pondile, Dattatreya has been booked under sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocity) Act for abetting the suicide of Rohith Vemula, who hanged himself on Sunday.
On Monday, the Gachibowli police registered a case under Atrocity Act and Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC against VC P Appa Rao Pondile, Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao, ABVP student Sushil Kumar and Krishna Chaitanya.
In a suicide note, Rohith had said “My birth is my fatal accident.” He had been recently suspended along with four other Dalit students over an altercation with AVBP activists in August last year.
Rao said that the ABVP had opposed the ASA’s protest against Yakub Memon’s hanging in university campus. The ABVP opposed it as the protest was “anti-national” and that in the “subsequent scuffle”, the student leaders of ABVP were beaten up badly by goons from ASU and from outside the campus. ABVP had filed a complaint with the MHRD and subsequently five students were suspended.
He said that the university vice chancellor was the appropriate authority to initiate action, and that the VC had done so after the recommendation of a committee.
“Few political parties and divisive forces are trying to malign Dattatreyaji and the BJP using low-level politics in an unfortunate suicidal death of a student,” Rao told The News Minute.
Following the protests over Memon’s hanging, the Proctorial Board of the university had inquired into the allegations of assault against the ASA. The board first found no evidence that ABVP member Suhsil Kumar had been assaulted.
However university students have alleged that following Dattatreya’s intervention, the university asked the Proctorial Board to take another look the allegations. The second time, the board said the ASA students had assaulted Kumar, following which they were suspended for a semester.