As the suicide by a research scholar in Central University of Hyderabad sparked off a major protest by the students and tension gripped the campus on Monday, Hyderabad Police booked a case against four persons including Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, varsity Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao, and two ABVP leaders on charges of abetment of suicide.
The police had to use water cannons and detain several protesting students in front of HRD Ministry’s office in the national Capital even as s NSUI members led a protest in front of the New Delhi residence of HRD Minister Smriti Irani. The HRD Minister has despatched a two-member fact-finding team to Hyderabad.
Tension gripped Hyderabad University Campus last evening after a 25-year-old Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula was found hanging in a hostel room. Rohit was one of the five students and activists of Ambedkar Students Association who were expelled from the hostel following a clash with the ABVP supporters.
Dattatreya denied that a letter written by him to the HRD Minister was responsible for the suicide. The agitating students have blamed Dattatreya for the incident pointing out that he had written a letter to Smriti Irani leading to action against five Dalit students including Rohit Vemula.
The Congress has demanded immediate sacking of Dattatreya in the wake of an FIR filed against him. It wanted the University Vice Chancellor removed and said HRD Minister Smriti Irani should go there to ensure a fair probe.
Rohit was a second year scholar of science, technology and society studies department and a Junior Research Fellow of University of Grants Commission and aspired to become a writer.
Since the University expelled Rohit and others from the hostel and imposed restrictions on their moving around together in the campus on December 21, a large number of students under the banner of Joint Action Committee for Social Justice were agitating on the campus demanding the revocation of the suspension. The aggrieved students had also filed a writ petition in the Hyderabad High Court against the Vice Chancellor’s action.
Tension also prevailed at the Osmania Hospital where hundreds of students had gathered where Rohit’s body was kept.
Agitating students said that Rohit was very frustrated and disappointed over lack of response from the university authorities to his pleas for removing the restriction and releasing his dues of fellowship to the tune of Rs 1.40 lakhs.
Students said that Rohit, hailing from a poor family of agriculture labor in Guntur district, was supporting his family including mother and younger brother from his stipend. But he was unable to send any money home for the past several months.
While university authorities insisted that decision to expel the five students from the hostel and impose restrictions on them was taken on the basis of recommendation of a sub committee of Executive Council and Proctorial Board, students alleged that the V-C had victimized the five students including Rohit at the behest of Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MlC Ramchandra Reddy and the leaders of ABVP and BJYM.
However in his five page note Rohit did not name anybody as responsible for his step. “No one instigated me”, he wrote. He pleaded his friends and other students to ensure that the due of his seven month fellowship was paid to his family. He also mentioned that he owned Rs 40,000 to a friend and requested that he should also be paid the money.
Vemula’s body was cremated at Amberpet crematorium in Hyderabad on Monday evening in the presence of his family members and a large number of students. Police made elaborate security arrangements and prevented political leaders from attending the funeral.
Meanwhile Dattareya said that he had written the letter to the HRD ministry that few anti social elements were disrupting peaceful atmosphere of the university. The students pointed out that Dattatreya had alleged in his letter that the UOH had become a “den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”.