Rohit Vemula suicide: Telangana High Court closes quashing petitions of accused after police file closure report

The Telangana High Court recently closed the petitions moved by various accused in the suicide case of PhD scholar Rohit Vemula after it was told that the Police have filed a closure report in the matter [Podile Appa Rao vs The State Of Telangana]..Justice EV Venugopal said the complainant in the case would be at liberty to avail remedies against the closure report as available under law.“All these writ petitions are disposed of giving liberty to the de-facto complaint to avail the remedies as available under law to challenge the closure of the case as ‘lack of evidence’ since the closure report filed by the prosecution is pending adjudication before the trial Court,” the Court ordered..Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad had died by suicide in January 2016 after his stipend was stopped and he was suspended along with four other student leaders for allegedly assaulting a leader of rightwing student organisation, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)The case was that Podile Apparao, the former Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad, former legislative council member N Ramachandra Rao and some leaders of ABVP had allegedly harassed Vemula, complainant Dontha Prashanth and other students who belonged to Ambedkar Students Association.It was alleged Vemula took the extreme step due to the humiliation and harassment at the university after people with political interests had intervened with regard to the activities of student leaders..A criminal case was registered under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989. Petitions were then filed before the High Court by the accused in 2016 seeking quashing of the criminal case.The State recently told the Court that after a decision was taken to close the matter for lack of evidence and a final report was placed before the trial court..The High Court examined the closure report and noted that according to the Police, Vemula did not belong to Scheduled Caste and that “instead of concentrating on his studies and career, he spent more time in student politics which adversely effected his studies as well as career”.“It is also stated in the final report that multiple issues could have driven the deceased to commit suicide and despite the best efforts of the investigating officer no evidence could be collected to establish that the actions of the accused have driven the deceased to commit suicide,” the order said.Considering the closure report, the Court deemed it appropriate to dispose of the petitions seeking quashing of the case. .Advocates MV Sumanth, VT Kalyan, T Balamohan Reddy, D Narendar Naik and S Sriram represented the petitioners.Assistant Public Prosecutor Vizarath Ali represented the State.Senior Advocate Senior Counsel and Advocate UD Jai Bhima Rao represented other respondents..According to media reports, the Police after facing criticism for filing the closure report, have decided to conduct further investigation into the case. The Indian Express quoted the Telangana Director General of Police Ravi Gupta saying that an application would be moved before the trial court for further investigation in the suicide case.[Read Order]