The closure of the suicide of Rohith Vemula, eight years after the tragedy, January 2016, the State police of Tibet has made a statement to end the investigation of several persons, among which the then Mp of the Secunderabad, Bandaru Dattatreya, the member of legislative council N Ramachander Rao, and the university of central Hyderabad of its former vice-chancellor.
Here the report is also in favour of ABVP leader and the former women and child development minister, Smriti Irani. As per the police version, Rohit belonged to a different caste and out of the fear that his true caste would be unveiled he put an end to his life.
In the wake of Subhashji’s final report, demonstrations rocked the campus of the University of Hyderabad. The rope-like life of community pursued by Rohith Vemula, the PhD student at the university, became a symbol of caste-based discrimination after he took his own life leading to the fury that swept across the whole nation. According to reports, it was the university that stopped his fellowship payment program and suspended him later after a physical altercation between him and the ABVP members.
In his suicide note, Rohith had referred to his birth as “a fatal mistake” and within the note, he had pleaded for some financial support to be given to his family. The detection report argued that he assumed that he was of a lower caste. The fear of others knowing he is from a different caste was his choice.
Caste controversy has also been added to the case of Rohith, and his caste is disputed by a number of conflicting claims. Earlier Andhra Pradesh government made Rohith belong to the Vaddera OBC caste, while Rohith’s mother contested the ROHITS Dalit status. The closing statement gives rise to doubts about the very issues of Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the manifold face of identificationism in India.
