Rohith caste row refuses to die down

A preliminary investigation report filed by the Madhapur police in the High Court on January 31 had stated that research scholar Rohith Vemula’s mother Vemula Radhika belonged to the Vaddera caste, a BC community.

However, Ms Radhika and Rohith’s friend on Friday released a caste certificate of Rohith, which certified that he belonged to the SC/ST community.

The police report by Madhapur ACP M. Ramana Kumar had cited reports that said Radhika was adopted, and not the biological child of Rohith’s grandmother Challa Anjani Devi, who belong to the Vaddera caste.

The report, however, had added that the information was yet to be verified by the investigation agency.

Earlier, Rohith’s grandmother had spoken to national media and stated that Radhika was Mala, an SC, but she had raised her as Vaddera.

Rohith Vemula’s grandmother said that five years after the marriage of Rohith’s mother, Ms Radhika had decided to revert to her original SC caste — Mala. “I had raised Radhika as a Vaddera and got her married to a Vaddera boy who came from an affluent family. We didn’t hide the truth about Radhika’s adoption and told him that she was from an SC family but raised as a Vaddera. He had no objections,” she had said.

She said that Ms Radhika had left home and moved into an “SC colony” along with her children and it was there that she took on her SC identity.

Meanwhile, Cyberabad police is yet to submit a full investigation report to the HC on this issue. Officials said that the report submitted on January 31 was preliminary. “A requisition was filed before the tehsildar, Guntur Urban, to certify Ms Radhika’s caste and her two brothers. Accordingly, an inquiry was conducted and was certified that they are Vaddera (BC),” report said.