District collector may cancel SC certificate of Vemula family

The Guntur district collector has proposed to cancel the Scheduled Caste certificates of the family members of Rohith Vemula, the research scholar who committed suicide at University of Hyderabad in January last year.

The accused, including Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and vice chancellor Prof Podile Appa Rao, can now go scot-free in the case filed under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, sources said.

Collector Kantilal Dande issued a notice to Rohith’s mother Vemula Radhika, asking her to explain why the caste certificate should not be cancelled. The District-Level Scrutiny Committee, which met on the request of the Telangana Police, has concluded that Rohith’s father Vemula Mani Kumar belongs to the Vaddera community, which comes under the BC-A category. Consequently, the notice was issued to Radhika.

The notice mentioned that the SC certificates of Radhika, daughter Neelima, older son Rohith and youngest son Raja are liable to be cancelled.

The Vemula family has a fortnight to respond to the notice.