Trigger warning: The following article contains references to suicide. Please avoid reading it if you are disturbed by the subject
Radhika Vemula, 57, has spent the past 24 hours in turmoil. It’s 5.20 p.m. on a Saturday. She steps out of a hired cab and walks into the intimidating University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus. The guards don’t stop the woman wearing a white sari with a shawl. Everyone knows her as Rohith Vemula’s mother, a single woman who has been fighting for justice for her son. Rohith ended his life in a hostel room of UoH on January 17, 2016, after leaving behind a suicide note that alluded to caste discrimination.
On May 3 this year, the Telangana Police submitted a 60-page closure report in the Telangana High Court that detailed the circumstances of the death of the 26-year-old, a PhD scholar. The report says the reasons for the suicide were “personal”, thereby negating allegations that a series of other factors, such as the withdrawal of his fellowship money amounting to ₹1,77,403, and him being barred from hostel and public spaces in the university had anything to do with it. As the report circulated on WhatsApp, Radhika began receiving calls from journalists and Rohith’s former classmates.
