Was depressed after Rohith Vemula committed suicide, read his note 200 times: ABVP leader Susheel Kumar

ABVP leader Nandanam Susheel Kumar, who has been accused of abetting suicide of dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, demanded a "fair" inquiry.

Hyderabad: Amid protests over Rohith Vemula's suicide, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader Nandanam Susheel Kumar on Thursday said he was depressed about the whole incident.

Kumar, who has been accused of abetting suicide of the dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, demanded a "fair" inquiry and rejected claims that he had lied about being

assaulted by Rohith and other members of Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) at the Hyderabad Central University.

Talking to media, Kumar said he read Vemula's suicide letter 200 times in which he did not name anyone.

"Reasons for Rohith Vemula's suicide should be thoroughly examined. When a person like Rohith Vemula could confront so many people like us (and) also there was hearing by the High Court in two days, what made him go into depression?" Kumar said.

"What were the faculty or the students around him doing? When a student got into depression, these people could not identify that? They give us lectures on how to identify a person when is in under depression," he told reporters here.

"Why did these people send Rohith to some other person's room without sending someone along with him? There are many issues in this. There should be a fair inquiry. And whoever is the culprit, let it be me or let it be anyone else, the culprit should be punished," he said.

On his claims that he was manhandled, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader said he can produce records that he was admitted to hospital and underwent an operation.

"I don't know what the Hyderabad Police said. But I was admitted to hospital and you can see the injuries on my body, you can still see the operation marks on me. There may not be any external injuries, but there are enough certificates that say that I had to go for an operation," he said.

The university had in a statement in August said there was a fight involving students of the ASA and Susheel Kumar of ABVP which eventually reached the court.

The 28-year-old Vemula, a second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department, was found hanging in his friend's room in the hostel on Sunday.

He was one of the five students expelled from the hostel and barred from all facilities except their classrooms following a clash with ABVP leaders.

The row between the students groups broke out in August last year when Ambedkar Students Union took out a rally to condemn the ABVP's attack on the screening of a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots at Delhi University.