The HRD Ministry on Thursday appointed former Allahabad High Court judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal to probe circumstances leading to Dalit student suicide in the Hyderabad University even as the situation remained volatile in the university campus with a group of Dalit teachers joining the protesting students and going on a relay hunger strike demanding justice for victim Rohith Vemula.
Member of SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum of Hyderabad University joined the relay hunger strike in solidarity with the students who were on protest for the last 11 days. While the second group of seven students, who had gone on indefinite hunger strike, were shifted to the hospital on Wednesday after their health deteriorated, other students were continuing their relay hunger strike as the university remained shut ignoring the appeal of in-charge vice-chancellor Vipin Srivastava to restore normalcy and resume academic and research activities.
A senior HRD Ministry official said that Justice (retd) Roopanwal will review the entire sequence of events, the circumstances and establish facts and correctives in connection with the incident. The one-man judicial commission will submit its report within three months. The constitution of a judicial commission comes following a HRD Ministry fact-finding committee report advocating for the same last week.
Joint action committee for social justice has said that it will continue its fight till the in-charge V-C, Vipin Srivastava, was removed from his post along with vice-chancellor P Appa Rao.
Giving a new twist to the situation — a rival group of students, belonging to the ABVP — also held a demonstration on the campus for the second consecutive day on Thursday demanding the reopening of the university and starting the classes.
The slogan shouting match between the JAC and the ABVP supporters added to the tension in the campus forcing the authorities to intervene.
Vinay Bidre, national general secretary of ABVP, the students wing of the BJP, sought to turn the agitation in to a fight between “patriots and anti national forces”.
Addressing the media in Hyderabad, he alleged that the fight was between the supporters of Yakub Memon, the convict of Bombay blasts, and the patriots.