UoH higher ups depose before probe panel

Hyderabad: University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor Prof P Appa Rao, acting VC M Periasamy, Registrar M Sudhakar and finance officers on Thursday deposed before the one-man judicial commission which is in the city to probe the suicide of Vemula Rohith Chakravarti.

University officials submitted the Proctorial Board report and executive council sub-committee report to the commission. “We have presented and explained the series of things. The judge has listened to us,” said the Registrar.Meanwhile, the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice- University of Hyderabad (JAC-UoH) has strongly condemned statements of Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani.

The JAC said earlier Smriti Irani and other ministers of the BJP had made offensive and irresponsible statements on Rohith’s issue. Students said even though documents were in public domain since the beginning, the Minister of HRD continued to deliberately manipulate facts. “We are deeply offended and outraged by her fabricated statements about the doctor not being called when the students discovered Rohith.

We would like the Minister to review the facts and look at the video evidence that reveals that the doctor was called immediately and had certified Rohith’s death at 7.30 pm itself. But, Smriti Irani lied in Parliament,” the JAC said. The JAC demanded enaction of ‘Rohith Act’ against the caste discrimination in education spaces and punish the culprits. It also demanded removal of Appa Rao from the post of Vice Chancellor and to employ a family member of Rohith in the university.