Rohith Vemula case: Govt promises ‘further investigation’; family to contest closure report
Rohith's brother Raja Vemula said the Telangana HC gave an option to file a ‘protest petition’ in the lower court, and that whether Rohith belonged to the SC community or not should come from the district collector of Guntur
Rohith Vemula, a University of Hyderabad Ph.D student, committed suicide in 2016. Photo: PTI
Just hours after the news about the Telangana Police filing a closure report in the Rohith Vemula suicide case, the Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Ravi Gupta said the police would file a petition in the court seeking permission to continue investigating the case.
Gupta said the police decided to continue further investigation after Rohith’s family and others raised doubts about the closure report.
People reacted with anger and shock to the news that the closure report not only absolved all the accused of guilt because of “lack of evidence” but also claimed that Rohith was not a Dalit. The report reportedly said that Rohith committed suicide because he feared that his “real caste identity” would be discovered and that his family had forged their caste certificates. The police, however, did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
The University of Hyderabad's then vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, former BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP ex-MLC N Ramachander Rao, union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani, and some ABVP leaders were among the accused.
Rohith’s family to legally contest closure report
The family of Rohith Vemula on Friday (May 3) said it would legally contest the Telangana Police's closure report in his 2016 suicide case.
Raja Vemula told news channels that the 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 could say he was not an SC.
Raja Vemula also said that they plan to meet Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on the matter.
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.
(With agency inputs)