In a statement issued by CPI(ML) Central Committee on May 3, the party strongly condemned the closure report filed by Telangana police in the institutional murder of HCU student Rohit Vemula. The statement noted “today, another painful chapter unfolded in the tragic death of Rohith Vemula on 17 January, 2016. Eight years after the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula by the HCU administration in collusion with the ABVP and the Modi Government, the Telangana police has filed its investigation report, rife with contradictions and obfuscations, calling for closure of the case due to “lack of evidence”. In doing so, the Telangana police has also given a clean chit to BJP leaders Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya, N Ramachander Rao and former Hyderabad University Vice-Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile.”
It is undeniable that the scientist, scholar and activist Rohith Vemula had been pushed to despair because of the manner in which the Central University had victimized Dalit student activists under pressure from the ABVP and Ministers of the Central Government. Even so, the Final Report, while acknowledging the repeated harassment and punishment by the University administration, and the interventions of ABVP and BJP leaders, absolves them of any blame.
The Telangana police also claims that Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit, and that the caste certificates of the Vemula family were forged. It concludes that one of the reasons for his suicide was fear that real caste identity would be discovered. This is shocking, since it ignores the fact that Radhika Vemula’s adoptive mother had, before her death, given public testimonies that Radhika was from the Mala (SC) community, and had been adopted and then married into the Vaddera (OBC) community, only to be deserted by her husband when he came to know of her Dalit birth. Moreover, it is baseless and disingenuous to assert this as a cause for his suicide.
CPI(ML) Liberation condemns this action of the Telangana Police as not merely a cover-up for the institutional murder, but also for the character assassination of Rohith Vemula and his mother Radhika Vemula.
This is another example of a feudal casteist police action, and strict action ought to be taken against the concerned police officials for the same. CPIML reiterates that this is a case of institutional murder where a brilliant Dalit student was driven to suicide, and demands that the Congress government in Telangana reinvestigate and ensure that chargesheet is filed in the case.
