Telangana police report says Radhika Vemula’s records show her as backward caste

The Telangana police have submitted to the Telangana High Court a preliminary investigation report that says Rohith Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula is a Vaddera, which is the caste of her adoptive family. The report was first published by the website myind.net.

Ramana Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyberabad), has submitted a document dated January 31 to the High Court, providing information on the castes of Radhika Vemula and her son Rohith Vemula.

These findings were based on school records, and the statements of the neighbours and relatives of Radhika’s adoptive family in Guntur town.

In her school records between 1981-85, Radhika is listed as Vaddera. The police have also questioned members of Radhika’s adoptive family including her brothers and relatives and her neighbours as well. The document also says that the Guntur Urban Tahsildar has clarified that Radhika Vemula, her two adoptive brothers Banala Giridhar, Banala Sridhar are Vaddera.

The report adds that though media reports have quoted Radhika Vemula and her mother Anjani Devi saying that Radhika was not Anjani's biological child, the adoption was yet to be verified.

The document also says that the investigating officer had visited Guntur town and “verified the school records of the deceased (Rohith Vemula) and found that his caste was not recorded. In his intermediary and graduation it was entered that the deceased was SC (Mala).

However, doubts have been raised over the police report.

What is surprising is that same Guntur administration gave #RohithVemula and his mother Dalit caste certificates in 2015.

— T S Sudhir (@Iamtssudhir) February 26, 2016

Radhika’s adoptive family

As the protests over Rohith’s death grew, there were rumours on the internet that Rohith was not a Dalit. These speculations gained further traction after an interview Rohith’s father gave Telugu media, in which he said that Rohith was a Vaddera, not a Dalit. All this happened within a week of his death.

When these questions were being raised about Rohith’s caste identity and her own, Radhika stated that she was adopted by a Vaddera family, and was therefore married off to a man belonging to the Vaddera caste at the age of 14.

According to a report published by Hindustan Times, the adoptive mother Anjani Devi, took Radhika in when she was about one year old.

“Caste? What is caste? I am a Vaddera (OBC). Radhika’s parents were Mala (Scheduled Caste). I never bothered about her caste. She was like my own daughter. I married her to a man from my caste,” Anjani told HT. She also says that Radhika’s marriage to Mani Kumar was an inter-caste one.

“I had a talk with Mani’s grandfather who was a respected man from the Vaddera community. We agreed that we will keep Radhika’s caste a secret and not tell Mani about it,” Anjani told HT.

While Mani was always abusive, after he discovered Radhika’s caste in the fifth year of their marriage, he become more abusive, Radhika told HT.

HT reported: “Somebody in our Vaddera colony in Prashanth Nagar leaked the secret to him that Radhika is an adopted Mala girl. That’s when he started beating her very badly,” Anjani says. Confirming this, Radhika says, “Mani was always abusive. But after he discovered my caste, he became even more violent. He would beat me almost every day and curse his luck for being cheated into marrying an untouchable."