Hyderabad research scholar's suicide: BJP 'honours' the dead with terror supporter tag

Police detain DSO (students wing of SUCI) activists for holding a protest against the HRDS Ministry in front of Governor House in Kolkata yesterday.

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary P Muralidhar Rao yesterday shielded his party from the allegations levelled following suicide of the Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), saying that the suicide was in no way related to his caste. Rao alleged that the protests were politically driven.

Police detain DSO (students wing of SUCI) activists for holding a protest against the HRDS Ministry in front of Governor House in Kolkata yesterday. Pic/PTI

He further said Vemula had psychological problems, which were revealed in his suicide note. The minister also cocooned Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, saying that the minister did his job upon receiving a report.

Earlier, Rao had said Vemula's suicide note was in fact an ‘ammunition' for his party to ‘expose' the matter. "Many of his speeches, for which we have videos, show he had views that were supporting terrorists like Yakub Memon," Rao said.

He added the context of the clash between the student groups was Rohith's stand in support of terrorism, including that against the hanging of Yakub Memon.