Controversy over caste of scholar

A controversy has kicked off over the caste of HCU student Rohith Vemula, with self-declared documents filed by his parents showing that they belong to the Vaddera community, a backward classes group, surfacing Tuesday.

Rohith’s father Manikumar and mother Radhika had filed the papers with officials of the Guntur revenue department. Rohith’s family rubbished these claims and said that they belong to the SC community.

Gurazala mandal tahsildar Phanindra Babu said the documents of declaration were filed by Rohith’s parents with the mandal revenue inspector in 2014 for the birth certificate of his brother Vemula Rajachaitanya Kumar.

Phanindra Babu said, “The caste of Rajachaityanya Kumar was Vaddera as per the documents submitted to us and the officials conducted an inquiry and issued the birth certificate.”

A senior intelligence official of the police said, “Rohith’s caste issue has come to our notice. As a case is booked under the SC/ST Atrocities Act (on Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya) we will investigate which caste Rohith belonged to.”