The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Tuesday rejected allegations that it had put pressure on the Hyderabad Central University in the matter relating to the suspension of a Dalit student, who committed suicide on Sunday.
The Ministry sent five letters including four reminders to the university regarding the August 17, 2015 letter written by Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya to take procedural action in the matter. HRD officials claimed that after Dattatreya, MP from Secunderabad, wrote the letter, the Ministry only followed the standard practice by writing to the university on September 3, seeking the “issues raised by the MoS may be examined and facts intimated.”
The Ministry had sent its first letter on September 3, 2015 to the university, and reminders were later sent on September 24, October 6, October 20 and November 19. Officials said that the university finally replied on the matter on January 7.
A day after the suicide incident, the HRD Ministry on Monday sent a two-member fact finding team to look into the incident.
Three of the HRD Ministry’s letters were written to the University VC, while two were addressed to the Registrar. In the letter written on October 20, the VC was asked to look into the “facts personally and get the facts provided at the earliest”.
HRD officials said on the night of August 3 last year, a group of students suspected to be belonging to Ambedkar Students Association allegedly attacked Susheel Kumar, the then president of ABVP on the campus, and the Proctorial Board of the University enquired into the matter. It was the Executive Council of the University that then approved the expulsion of five students, including Rohith.
An Executive Sub-Committee, which included a senior Dalit faculty member and was headed by the senior-most professor, was subsequently constituted to go into the matter and it upheld the recommendation. However, later at a meeting of the Executive Council, a lenient view was taken as expulsion would have deprived the students of the chance to continue pursuing their doctorate and it was decided to permit them into their departments, library and academic meetings but not in hostel, administration and other public places.
The decision was challenged by the students in the court. Three of the students also started protest by sleeping in the open. They also said the Dean Students Welfare had regularly counselled the students to have patience to wait for the court’s verdict, while the Vice Chancellor had also discussed the issue with them.