No delay in medical assistance to Rohith Vemula case, students delayed probe, claims Telangana Police

Hyderabad: A day after Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani claimed in Lok Sabha that no doctor was called in to revive Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula after he committed suicide, Telangana Police has claimed that there was no delay in providing medical assistance to him though they faced tough resistance from the angry students of the university.

According to a report in IBN-LIVE, the Telangana Police has mentioned in its report that there was no denial of medical examination of Rohith Vemula.

The report also mentions that Telangana cops faced some resistance from Hyderabad Central University students while probing the case.

The Telangana cops had earlier claimed that an unruly mob of students did not even allow police to take out Vemula's body to carry out the investigation.

In its report, the investigators claimed the students delayed the police probe by demanding the arrest of Hyderabad Central University's Vice-Chancellor.

During a debate in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday on the controversies surrounding the Hyderabad University, Irani had said nobody allowed a doctor near Vemula either to revive him or take him to the hospital.

"Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported that not one attempt was made to revive this child, not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead what was done was that his body was used as a political tool, hidden. No police was allowed till 6.30, the next morning. It is not me the Telangana police is saying this," she had said.

However, the doctor on duty, Chief Medical Officer M Rajshree, at the university's health centre had on Thursday contradicted the claim of the HRD Minister.

However, according to a report in The News Minute, CMO M Rajshree had claimed, "Security officials found the body and I got a call around 7:20 pm. By the time I reached the body was removed from the ceiling fan and within 10 minutes we declared him dead."

"I also informed the V-C immediately. He asked me whether there was any possibility of reviving Rohith. I was there till 3 am that day,” Dr Rajshree said.

Students of the university also released a video footage which showed policemen near Vemula's body which was lying on the floor in the hostel room.

The CMO said Rohith was already dead for two hours by the time she reached the hostel around 7.30 pm on January 17.

She said it was incorrect of Irani to say that no doctor saw Vemula's body till the next day.