UoH Student Suicide: Case Against Dattatreya, VC

The Gachibowli police registered a criminal case against Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, University of Hyderabad (UoH) Vice-Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile and three others on charges of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the IPC and under the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act, on Monday.

Acting upon a complaint lodged by a research scholar of the Central University alleging that Dattatreya was primarily responsible for the suicide of dalit (SC) student Rohith Vemula, the police booked a case for their involvement in the incident.

The student Prashant, one of the five leaders of the Ambedkar Student Association who were expelled from the hostels as punishment by the University administration for allegedly manhandling another student and ABVP leader on the campus, in his complaint alleged that the Union Minister wrote to the Union HRD Minister recommending action on the five dalit scholars (i. e. Ph. D. students) in August last year for staging a protest against the hanging of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, and that eventually led to the suicide.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed on the University of Hyderabad campus on Monday. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups intensified the agitation against the expulsion following Vemula's death, blaming Appa Rao and Dattatreya for the suicide and demanding their resignations. A large number of policemen were deployed on the campus to prevent violence as dalit and Leftist student groups called for a university shutdown.

The police faced resistance in taking over the body. The students had locked the body in the hostel room where Vemula allegedly hanged himself on Sunday evening, and were preventing the police from shifting the body for an autopsy. A scuffle broke out between the police and the students, who were raising slogans of "police go back". Policemen in riot gear then used force to enter the hostel and shifted the body for an autopsy.

Balladeer Gaddar and others were also taken into custody when they visited the hospital to see body of Vemula.