The Telangana police on Friday filed a closure report in the 2016 case of the death of University of Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith Vemula and gave a clean chit to former vice chancellor Appa Rao, ABVP leaders, Union Minister Smriti Irani and others.

According to the police, Vemula committed suicide in January 2016 in fear of his real caste being revealed as he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste category. It further said his mother had arranged for him a Scheduled Caste certificate.

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Sources said Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula was born into ‘Mala’ caste, a Dalit sub-group, but got married to a man of a different caste. Her husband had later abandoned her and her children.

The report was signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhapur division, Cyberabad police.

The ruling Congress in Telangana had supported the nationwide ‘Justice for Vemula’ campaign. The Congress leadership is yet to respond to the closure report.

The closure report submitted to the High Court absolved the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Member of Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao, and then Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, ABVP leaders and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.

The police, in its report submitted to the court, mentioned that Rohith Vemula was aware that he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and that his mother got him an SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears, as the exposure of the same would put him to the loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution, the report said.

It added that Vemula had multiple issues plaguing him which could have driven him to die by suicide.

Police said that no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused had driven Vemula to kill himself.

Rohith Vemula’s brother, Raja, called the police claims “wrong” and said that they will seek help from Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Saturday.

“It is absolutely wrong, a police officer cannot decide on a person’s caste. We are going to meet Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy tomorrow. We will file a protest petition and other options will also be taken up,” he added.