Dalit Student Suicide: Union Min Booked; Smriti Irani Sends Team

Trouble mounts for Bandaru Dattatreya as he is charged with abetting the suicide of student Rohith Vemula.

Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister of Labour and Employment has been charged with abetment to suicide in the death of Rohith Vemula. He is one of the five Dalit scholars suspended by University of Hyderabad in August last year and on 10 January, he was expelled from the hostel. Rohith hanged himself in a hostel room on Sunday evening.

Also read: Suspended Hyd Univ Dalit Student Commits Suicide; Protests Erupt

Bandaru has released a statement saying the letter the 28-year-old wrote to the university has nothing to do with Rohith’s suicide.

Don’t want to make political statements. My condolences to the family of the deceased. The two-member fact finding team will submit a report on this. The government does not intervene in the administration of universities.

Smriti Irani, HRD Minister

Rohith and four other research scholars were suspended from the university last year following a clash with leaders of right-wing student group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Also read: The Goodbye Letter: Dalit Student Rohith Vemula’s Last Words

On 10 January, they were expelled from their hostel too following the recommendation by a committee that was probing the incident. Since then, they have been forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on campus.

Some anti-social elements were disrupting peaceful atmosphere within university, I wrote to the ministry seeking action against that.

Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister of Labour and Employment

Tension erupted on campus after Rohith’s suicide, with scores of students sitting with his body and sloganeering on Sunday night.

Also read: In Photos: Protests Erupt After Dalit Student Commits Suicide

The protesting students had demanded that the police register a case under the SC/ST Atrocity Act against Dattatreya. They alleged that Dattatreya had written to the HRD Ministry seeking action against the five research scholars.

Protest Reaches Delhi

Students in Delhi protested outside the HRD Ministry on Monday morning and were met with water canons of the Delhi police.

K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also heads a cultural organisation Telangana Jagruti.

He wrote to (HRD Minister) Smriti Irani in support of ABVP students and this brought pressure on the university vice chancellor and he suspended five students of Ambedkar Students Union.

K Kavitha, MP, TRS

Even as Kavitha agreed that the suspension had come to the cultural body’s notice, it refused to interfere with students politics.