Hyderabad student plotted VC’s assassination to avenge Rohith Vemula’s death

The police have arrested a post-graduate student of the Hyderabad Central University for allegedly trying to assassinate P Appa Rao, the Vice-Chancellor to avenge the death of Rohith Vemula who committed suicide on the campus in January 2016.

The police arrested the student and one of his friend on Friday evening, foiling the assassination plot.

East Godavari district Superintendent of Police (SP) Vishal Gunni said Chandan Kumar Mishra of Kolkata, an MA student in HCU, and his friend Ankala Pridhvi Raj were apprehended by the police. They were caught by the police on the basis of suspicion during a routine vehicle checking on the Bhadrachalam-Charla road, bordering Telangana.

During questioning, the two revealed that they plotted to kill the HCU VC to avenge the death of Vemula, a PhD scholar of the university who had committed suicide in his hostel room in 2016, the SP said.

The two were put on the operation by outlawed CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member Pulluri Prasada Rao alias Chandranna and Telangana State Committee Secretary Hari Bhushan alias Yapa Narayana, the officer added.

The police said that the two wanted to join Naxal group CPI (Maoist) group and had met Hari Narayana in the Cherla forest area in December 2017.

The Naxal leader had promised Mishra that he would be a made an important cadre of the CPI (Maoist) if the VC was killed, the SP said.

"They discussed various issues relating to the university and the Rohith Vemula suicide issue and the developments following it. During the talk, they planned to kill the Vice-Chancellor so as to attract the students to the Maoist party," Gunni was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.

"They believed that if the vice chancellor is killed students might get inclined to the Maoist movement and join the group in large numbers," he said.

Another accused Raj belongs to Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh and is currently a fourth-year student of law in Vijayawada. The two met in 2016 and became friends, the SP added. Mishra had joined the HCU in 2013 for his MA.

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