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Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that the state government has filed a legal note to reopen investigation into University of Hyderabad (UoH) research scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide.
Bhatti, also an alumnus of UoH, was speaking to the press about the appointment of Ramchander Rao, an accused in the Rohith Vemula case, as the Telangana BJP president.
“We will not leave anybody involved in the case. The appointment shows that whoever goes against Adivasis and whoever goes against Dalits will be rewarded by the BJP,” he told reporters at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in Delhi. He further said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has to apologise to the nation for the appointment.
“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?” Bhatti asked. He went on to reference the Rohith Vemula Act, a legislation meant to curb discrimination in educational institutions.
The Rohith Act was proposed by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2023.
Notably, the Telangana police under the Congress government in May 2024, had filed a closure report in the case, absolving all the accused including Ramchander Rao.
Who is Rohith Vemula?
Rohith Vemula was a Dalit research scholar at UoH in 2016, when he died by suicide, following a suspension from the University administration. The chain of events began in early 2016, when the then ABVP general secretary Susheel Kumar alleged that a few members of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) including Rohith, had “roughed him up.”
Though an inquiry later found no evidence to support the claim, the incident triggered a swift political wave. BJP leaders — then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and MLC Ramchander Rao — were accused of pressuring the UoH administration to take action against the ASA activists.
Also Read: Mecca masjid blasts to Rohith Vemula: Telangana BJP chief brings a controversial past
A letter penned by Rohith Vemula before his death went viral triggering demonstrations across public universities in India against caste based discrimination in educational institutions.
Shortly after Rohith’s death, a case of abetment of suicide and charges under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, were filed against the then MLC N Ramchander Rao and others by ASA leader Dontha Prashanth.
However, in February 2016, the Telangana High Court stayed Ramchander Rao’s arrest in the case, citing a “lack of investigation.” After Ramchander Rao took oath as the Telangana BJP state president, the ASA condemned the appointment.
Also Read: ASA slams BJP for elevating Ramachander Rao, cites role in Rohith Vemula death