Rohit Vemula was an Indian  student at the University of Hyderbad pursuing PhD and   author of the book Caste is Not a Rumor.^]Rohith was a student activist of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) who committed suicide on 17 January 2016. His death occurred after a controversy which extended over several months starting in July 2015. In July 2015, the University reportedly stopped paying him a fellowship of ₹25,000 (US$390) per month after he was found “raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)” as part of institute’s disciplinary inquiry.

 An inquiry commission has stated that Hyderabad University Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula did not commit suicide because of any pressure exerted by Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya or university’s Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile and that it was a decision “of his own”, “(T)he suicide did not relate to any activities of the university administration or the political leaders (then HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya), including V-C Appa Rao Podile. It was wholly a decision of his own.

“His suicide note is on the record, which shows that Rohith Vemula had his own problems and was not happy with the worldly affairs,” said the report of the commission set up by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry. The one-man commission, headed by Allahabad High Court judge (retd) AK Roopanwal, was constituted in 2016 following Vemula’s suicide that triggered protests by students in Hyderabad and elsewhere.

The commission had submitted its findings to the HRD Ministry in December 2016, which was made public on Tuesday. “Vemula did not blame anybody for his suicide,” it said.