Rohith Vemula's family to challenge Telangana police closure report

The family of University of Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula on Friday, 3 May said it will legally contest the Telangana Police's closure report in his 2016 suicide case.

His brother Raja Vemula claimed the district collector has to decide on the family's SC status, prompting the police to say that they will conduct a further investigation.

In its closure report on Rohith Vemula's death, the Telangana Police claimed he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.

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.

Raja Vemula told news channels that Telangana High Court gave an option to file a 'protest petition' in the lower court.

Whether Rohith Vemula belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community or not should come from the district collector of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, he said and asked how the police can say he was not an SC.

Raja Vemula also said that they plan to meet Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on the matter.

Meanwhile, police chief 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 final closure report was officially filed in the jurisdictional court on 21 March by the investigation officer, he said in the statement.

In its closure report, the police also gave a clean chit to the accused, citing a lack of evidence.

The university's then vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, former BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP ex-MLC N Ramachander Rao, and some ABVP leaders were among the accused.