Rohith Vemula’s suicide: Agitating students to name Smriti Irani in FIR

HYDERABAD/BENGALURU: The agitating students at the University of Hyderabad are set to name Union HRD Smriti Irani in the FIR on the death of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula. The FIR, issued by the Gachibowli police station, currently names Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao and university vice-chancellor Apparao Podile on charges of abetment to suicide and atrocities against a Dalit.

"We will name Smriti Irani also in the FIR, on the same charges. We are in the process of drafting the legal document and finding out how to do it," Dontha Prashanth, Vemula’s fellow activist and member of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) that is leading the protests, told ET.

Congress also upped the ante against Irani. Party spokesperson Madhu Yashki Goud said Dattatreya could only be seen as someone who had filed a complaint against ASA. "It is Irani who acted on that complaint and pressed for action."

Meanwhile, Podile has gone on indefinite leave citing personal reasons and Vipin Srivastava, who headed the executive committee that expelled Vemula and four others, has been appointed acting V-C, as announced on the university’s website.

Critics said Srivastava is a bad choice. "Srivastava is more tainted than Apparao," said K Lakshminaraya, associate professor and head of the University Teachers Association. "He was dean of physics when another Dalit student, Senthil Kumar, committed suicide in 2008. He is also indirectly responsible for Rohith’s death," he told ET.