Two Held for Plotting HCU VC’s Murder to Avenge Vemula’s Death

The two were put on the operation by outlawed CPI (Maoist), says police.

Rohith Vemula’s friends and family remember the Dalit PhD scholar who took his own life on 17 January 2016. 

(Photo: Facebook/PTI/Altered by The Quint)

A post-graduate student of Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and one of his friends were arrested for allegedly plotting to kill Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao to avenge the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the police said on Saturday, 31 March.

East Godavari district Superintendent of Police (SP) Vishal Gunni said Chandan Kumar Mishra of Kolkata, an MA student in HCU, and his friend Ankala Pridhvi Raj were apprehended by the police on the basis of suspicion during a routine vehicle checking on the Bhadrachalam-Charla road, bordering Telangana.

During questioning, the two revealed that they plotted to kill the HCU VC to avenge the death of Vemula, a PhD scholar of the university who had committed suicide in his hostel room in 2016, the SP said.

The two were put on the operation by outlawed CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member Pulluri Prasada Rao alias Chandranna and Telangana State Committee Secretary Hari Bhushan alias Yapa Narayana, the officer added.

Narayana had promised Mishra that he would be a made an important cadre of the CPI (Maoist) if the VC was killed, the SP said. 

Mishra met Raj, who belongs to Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, at the university in 2016 and became friends, he added.

Raj is currently a fourth-year student of law in Vijayawada.

Mishra had joined the HCU in 2013 for his MA.

"The two got attracted to Maoist ideology and started luring other students as well by conducting classes," the SP said.

Vemula's suicide in January, 2016 had triggered a nationwide protest, demanding justice for him.