Rohith Vemula Suicide: Police affidavit Counters ABVP Leader’s assault claim

Mangalore Today News Network

Hyderabad, Jan 23, 2016:  The Cyberabad police had filed an affidavit in the Hyderabad High Court in October last year contesting the claim of ABVP student leader Susheel Kumar that Rohith Vemula and his companions had attacked him in August leading to serious injuries and hospitalisation.
 
Mr Vemula, a suspended student of the Hyderabad Central Univerity, had committed suicide on the campus last Sunday. He was suspended with four other students for the alleged assault on the night of August 3, 2015. It now turns out that Mr Kumar had only suffered minor injuries, the police told the court in the affidavit. The police have also appealed in the court to dismiss Mr Kumar’s plea. The case is listed for hearing later this month.
 
Mr Kumar had alleged he was assaulted and ended up having appendicitis surgery. The police say his surgery "had nothing to do with alleged assault." Despite the police report, the university authorities went ahead and suspended Mr Vemula and his companions.
 
Mr Kumar is a leader of the RSS’s students wing ABVP, which has close links with the BJP.  In August, he filed a police complaint alleging that Mr Vemula and four other students had assaulted him and kicked him in the stomach. The complaint, which also resulted in the court case and two university inquiries, that led to suspension of Rohith Vemula, is being cited by protesting students as one of the main triggers for Mr Vemula’s suicide. The other, they allege, is the pressure put on university officials by Union Minister Bandaru Dattatraya, to act against Mr Vemula.
 
Mr Kumar claimed in a Facebook post that Mr Vemula and his friends launched a serious assault on him that he was hospitalised. Medical reports state that he was admitted the next morning but stayed on to get himself operated for appendicitis. He had told NDTV on Wednesday  that he was hospitalised for assault that was the reason for his appendicitis operation.

In December, Mr Vemula and four others were suspended. He was found hanging in his room a month later on January 18.