NEW DELHI: News community ANI has reportedly quoted Foreign Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj as saying that the Hyderabad Central University’s Phd scholar Vemula Rohith, who committed suicide, was not a member of the dalit community.
“As per my knowledge the said student was not a member of the dalit community and the whole incident has been framed by calling him as a dalit student”, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said in an interview to news agency ANI.
As per the sources from the Home ministry, a secret intelligence report forwarded to the National Security adviser Ajith Doval said that Vemula Rohith was not a dalit student. The report cited the statement of Rohith’s grandmother Raghavamma claiming that both her son and daughter-in-law belong to the vaddera community, which is a backward caste and not a dalit.
Rohith and five others were suspended by the HCU in August 2015 for carrying out an alleged attack on an ABVP leader. The University has already revoked the suspension of the four students, following uproar over Rohith’s suicide.