The police have filed a closure report before a local court in its probe into the death of Rohith Vemula, a student of the University of Hyderabad, claiming he was not a Dalit and died by suicide in 2016 as he feared that his "real caste" would be discovered.
The police also gave a clean chit to the accused in the case, citing a lack of evidence.
The then UoH vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, former Bharatiya Janata Part MP Bandaru Dattatreya, former BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao, along with some ABVP leaders, were among the accused in the case.
The Cyberabad police that investigated the case informed the court that Rohith Vemula did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that he was aware of it.
Vemula died by suicide in 2016.
"The deceased had multiple issues worrying him which could have driven him to commit suicide," the report said.
"In addition to this, the deceased himself was aware that he did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that his mother got him a SC certificate. This could be one of the constant fears as the exposure of the same would result in a loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution."
Further, the report said, "Despite best efforts, no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide."
Vemula's death in 2016 snowballed into a political controversy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacking the Central government and the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani slamming alleged attempts to project it as a caste battle.
The Congress had then attacked Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya and other BJP and ABVP functionaries in connection with the suicide of Rohith Vemula and over alleged discrimination against students from marginalised sections in universities.
When contacted, Rohith Vemula's brother Raja Vemula declined to comment.
Citing the closure report, BJP's IT department in-charge Amit Malviya said, "truth prevails".
He said on X, "Telangana Police files closure report in Rohith Vemula case, claiming he was not a Dalit and died by suicide, absolves then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, MLC N Ramchander Rao and University of Hyderabad V-C Appa Rao, besides Union Minister Smriti Irani and ABVP leaders. Truth prevails."
He referred to a 2017 post by Rahul Gandhi in which the Congress leader had alleged that Vemula was "murdered" because he was a "Dalit" to slam him.
Gandhi's irresponsible campaign vitiated the environment in higher learning educational institutes across India and put Vemula's family through immeasurable pain and misery, Malviya alleged.
"But he (Gandhi) had no compunction raising the spectre of caste oppression, to suit his sinister agenda, using thousands of students, particularly from the Dalit community, as canon fodder for his regressive politics. He should apologise to both, the student and Dalit communities," Malviya said.
Meanwhile, a group of students protested at the University of Hyderabad and raised slogans against BJP, Smriti Irani and former UoH Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao.
