Indian minister charged for Dalit student's suicide

Indian police Monday registered a case against federal minister Bandaru Dattatreya and three others with abetting suicide of a student pursuing PhD at a university in southern India.

"The minister was charged with abetment to suicide and booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act," a police official said. "

Other people in the police report include vice chancellor Appa Rao and two rightwing Hindu student leaders Sushil Kumar and Vishnu."

The student, Rohit Vemula, belonging to Dalit community killed himself on Sunday inside Hyderabad Central University and his body was found hanging from ceiling of a friend's hostel room.

Dalits were previously known as untouchables in India.

Vemula's death triggered protests in the campus as hundreds of students clashed with security personnel. In Indian capital city New Delhi, police used water cannons to disperse several groups protesting outside the human resource development ministry's office.

Students alleged Dattatreya, the minister belonging to India's ruling Bharatiya Janta Party, orchestrated the suspension of Vemula and four other Dalit students from the university hostel.

Protesters said Dattatreya wrote a letter to the federal ministry of human resource and development complaining about the Dalit students including Vemula.

Following their suspension the students were on protest and had erected a makeshift tent on the campus.

Dattareya told reporters that neither he nor his party was in anyway connected with the suicide of Dalit scholar.

Meanwhile, the human resource ministry has sent a two-member fact-finding team to Hyderabad to probe the death of scholar.

The opposition Congress party has demanded resignation of Dattatreya and removal of the university's vice-chancellor. Endit