With many serious discrepancies in the story of alleged attack on the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader N Susheel Kumar coming to light the case against the Dalit students of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) has suffered a major blow.
The allegation of Susheel Kumar, that he was brutally beaten up by the ASA members on the night of August 3 last year was rubbished by none other than the same administration of University of Hyderabad which had punished the group of Dalit students upholding the same allegations.
The authorities of UoH as well as the Cyberabad Police, under whose jurisdiction the university comes, have told the High Court that the claims of attack on Susheel Kumar were exaggerated.
They made the statement in a counter filed to the court after Susheel Kumar’s mother Vinaya approached the court seeking protection for her son.
It was the complaint of Susheel Kumar that led to the sequence of event culminating in the suicide by Rohith Vemula on Sunday and sparking of a nation wide row.
Giving a big blow to all the claims of ASA members beating up ABVP men, the statement of the university and police officials said that Susheel Kumar had suffered a minor in the scuffle between the members of ASA and ABVP.
This statement also runs against the letter of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya addressed to HRD Minister Smiriti Irani alleging that ASA members had beaten up Susheel Kumar.
This official position in the court may spell serious trouble for the university authorities who had taken a serious punitive action against Rohith Vemula and four other Dalit research scholars.
The Proctorial Board and the Executive Council of the University had taken action against the students despite the fact that medical examination report of Susheel Kumar had also ruled out serious injuries.
The report of Archana Hospital said that no serious injuries were found on Susheel’s body to suggest that he was assaulted. While on the basis of this report the University officials first decided to give clean chit to the Dalit students in August, later the same report was used by the Proctorial Board to punish them in December.
In sharp contrast to the medical report, Susheel Kumar alleged that he was beaten up by thirty to forty members of ASA leading to serious injuries and vomtting of blood.
However the medical report of Archana hospital said that Susheel was operated upon in the hospital on August 5 for acute appendicitis which had nothing to do with any assault.
But Susheel Kumar on his part continues to maintain that he was assaulted on the intervening night of 3 and 4 August leaving him seriously injured. He also alleged that he was attacked because of his objection to ASA members protesting against the hanging of Yakub Memon.
However R Ravikumar, an aluminous of the UoH after investigating the entire episode prepared a fact finding report. He said that the ASA demonstration was not in defense of Yakub but in protest against the capital punishment. “ABVP gave it a false color”,he said.