The family of University of Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula said they will legally contest the Telangana Police's closure report in his 2016 suicide case in which the cops claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered. The police also gave a clean chit to the accused, citing a lack of evidence.
According to media reports, the family plans to file a petition in court to seek further investigation.
Rohith's brother Raja Vemula claimed the district collector has to decide on the family's SC status, and said they plan to meet Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the matter.
He told news channels that Telangana High Court gave an option to file a 'protest petition' in the lower court. Claiming that the closure report is “full of lies”, he said instead of probing the reasons behind the suicide, the police closed the case by certifying that he was not a Dalit.
Citing the doubts expressed by Rohith Vemula's family, Telangana Director General of Police Ravi Gupta said in a statement late on Friday that a petition will be filed in the court concerned, requesting the magistrate to permit further investigations.
Gupta said the investigation officer in the case was the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhapur, and that the final closure report was prepared before November, based on the investigation conducted.
The closure report has come barely 10 days before Telangana goes to polls on May 13. Neither the Telangana nor the central leadership of the party is yet to respond to the closure report.
In 2016, the Congress had backed the ‘Justice for Vemula campaign'. "After his suicide, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party supported our cause and promised to stand by us till justice is delivered. But within four months after their party came to power in Telangana, police have closed the case. This is extremely shocking," Times of India quoted Raja as saying.
