Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula on Saturday met Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to demand a fair investigation into the death of her son, a day after the state police filed a closure report in the case to the high court.

Talking to news agency ANI, she said the chief minister has assured that a fair enquiry would be conducted again, and that “this government will deliver us justice”.

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“The closure report was given based on the incidents that happened in 2018. There was no enquiry after that. We came to meet the chief minister today as the report has been given now. The CM assured that a fair enquiry will be conducted again,” she said.

The Telangana police on Friday filed the 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.

Sources said 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.

In a statement late Friday night, the office of the Telangana DGP said, “… It is to state that the Investigation Officer in the case was Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhapur and the final closure report in the case was prepared last year i.e. before November 2023 itself based on the investigation conducted. The final closure report was officially filed in the jurisdictional court on March 21 this year by the Investigation Officer.”

“As some doubts have been expressed by the mother and others of the deceased Rohit Vemula on the investigation conducted, it has been decided to conduct further investigation into the case. A petition will be filed in the court concerned requesting the Hon’ble Magistrate to permit further investigation into the case,” it said.

Commenting on the development, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I will use Rohith Vemula as an example to tell you how an unfortunate incident, without allowing the university to handle it with the utmost sensitivity, was dragged across the streets all over the country and a narrative was built against the government.

“Today those people who made a joke out of this unfortunate incident and dragged the family to the streets should apologise to the entire country for politicising this matter… Today when the facts have come out, we know the pressure and the toxic involvement in the narrative that was set up, did not come from the government, but from vested interest groups… The perpetrator of ‘Mohabbat ki dukaan’ took this issue to the Parliament… This is what I meant when I said rigorous research should not be infused with political narrative,” she told ANI.

“A problem which could have been well handled and resolved amicably in the university was dragged to the streets of the country and allegations were levied against the Education Minister and the Government at that point because it happened to be a Central University… Intolerance, political interference and hate do not lie in the government but in the vested interest groups who don’t lose an opportunity to bring this toxin into centres of higher education… Rohith Vemula had his dignity to be respected…” she added.

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.