Former Allahabad High Court Judge to Probe Rohith Vemula’s Suicide

Ex-HC judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal will probe the circumstances of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide.

CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya leads a demonstration to protest against the suicide of Rohith Vemula in Patna, on January 19, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

The HRD ministry on Thursday named former Allahabad high court judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal to probe the circumstances that led to dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad, reports the Asian Age.

HRD ministry sources said Justice Roopanwal will review the entire sequence of events and its circumstances and establish facts and correctives. The one-man judicial commission has been asked to submit its report within three months.

Earlier, a fact-finding committee set up by the ministry gave its report on developments at the university, after which it was decided a judicial commission would be set up. The scholar’s death led to protests by students in several parts of the country.

The joint parliamentary committee on SC/ST welfare, chaired by BJP MP Faggan Singh, has voiced concern over Vemula’s suicide and has proposed sending a delegation to the University of Hyderabad, and also to IIT Madras to examine complaints of injustice against dalit students.

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