The Telangana Police will reopen investigation into the death of University of Hyderabad’s Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, who died by suicide in January 2016, reported The News Minute on Saturday.

This came hours after media reports said the Telangana Police had filed a final closure report in the case. The closure report claimed that Vemula did not belong to the Scheduled Caste category and hence died by suicide fearing that his real caste identity would be discovered, according to The News Minute.

The report also alleged that the Vemula family forged their caste certificates. However, the family has maintained that Rohith Vemula’s mother is a Dalit Mala by birth and was adopted by a woman belonging to an Other Backward Classes community.

On Friday, Director General of Police Ravi Gupta said a petition will be filed in the court concerned requesting the magistrate to permit further investigation into the case.

In an interview with India Today, Gupta also said that the closure report was prepared before the Assembly polls in the state last year. The Congress came to power after the November 2023 Assembly polls defeating the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

“We will find out if the investigation officer did not bring other information to the notice of the higher authorities,” Gupta told India Today.

On Saturday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy will hold a meeting with Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula, his brother Raja Vemula, as well as the student leaders and teachers who have been campaigning for justice in the case, reported The News Minute.

The closure report had cleared the accused persons: Secunderabad MP at the time Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad Appa Rao, Leaders from Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.

Vemula had been protesting against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s student wing, and the administration at the University of Hyderabad for their decision to bar five Dalit men from using their hostels and the university’s public spaces. Vemula was one of the five men.

Vemula was a leader of the Ambedkar Students Association. According to a statement issued by the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice at the University of Hyderabad, the five Dalit students had been suspended after a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad falsely accused them of having assaulted him in August.

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