[1] From July 2015 to December 2015, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of ₹25,000 (equivalent to ₹38,000 or US$440 in 2023) (excluding HRA) till December 2015, with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues on campus under the banner of Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA), an Ambedkarite student organisation.

On 5 August, the university set up an inquiry against Rohith and four other ASA members, two days after they allegedly assaulted ABVP leader N. Susheel Kumar.

[2] His death sparked protests and outrage across India and gained widespread media attention as a case of state sponsored discrimination against Dalits in Indian universities.

[3] A District Level Scrutiny Committee that looked into the caste status of the family declared that neither Rohith nor his mother were Dalits but belonged to the OBC category.

"[2] At the beginning of August 2015, Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) claims that they organised a seminar or public meeting to discuss the death penalty for Yakub Memon, a convict in 1993 Bombay bombings in which 257 people were killed.

ASA also condemned the ABVP protest on the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai in Delhi University.

In response, ABVP's university unit president, Nandanam Susheel Kumar, called them "goons" on Facebook.

[2] The next day, Kumar was taken to hospital and operated for an acute appendicitis,[2][5][6][7] but stated that he was "roughed up by around 40 ASA members who barged into [his] room.

"[2][note 1] According to The Indian Express, an anonymous ASA member stated that "When we confronted Susheel in his hostel room, he tendered a written apology in the presence of the university's security officer.

"[2] According to the publication, "the ABVP wrote to BJP MP from Secunderabad and Union Minister Dattatreya, alleging that the ASA members were indulging in 'casteist' and 'anti-national' activities.

In response, further action was taken against Vemula by the college on 5 August 2015, expelling him from his hostel along with the other four members of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), while "ABVP's Kumar was let off with a warning.

On 3 January 2016, after the suspension was confirmed, "the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a "relay hunger protest.

This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.Smriti Irani told the Lok Sabha that no doctor was allowed to help Vemula and that "Instead, his body was used as a political tool.

According to Dattatreya's critics, his letter to the Education Minister, complaining about degraded student politics, had led to Vemula's suspension and ultimate suicide.

[12][13] After a complaint from students of the University of Hyderabad[14] a police case was filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bandaru Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party's MP from Secunderabad and Indian government's Minister of Labour and Employment; Ramachandra Rao (BJP MLC); and Appa Rao Podile (University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor).

After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj claimed that Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit,[16][17] a police investigation was started to determine his caste status.

[26][27] His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits and low status castes in India, in which elite educational institutions have been purportedly seen as hotbeds of caste-based discrimination against students belonging to lower caste.

Ann Druyan, Sagan's third wife, depressed by discrimination against Dalit students, said that she mourned Rohith's death and lost promise, and responded to Rohith's words in a letter:[28] To read his suicide note and to learn the details of his predicament is to get a vivid inkling of the actual cost of bias to our civilization.

If we could somehow quantify the totality of lost contributions and innovations as a result of prejudice, I believe we would find it staggering [...] You tell me, Rajeev: Is it possible that the attention paid to Rohit's story will lessen its chronic repetition?

I am trying to find something hopeful in an otherwise heartbreaking example of needless suffering and squandered potential.Rohith's suicide was described as "institutional murder" by Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati,[29] The poet Ashok Vajpeyi returned his D.Litt.

[32] "After collecting all the medical reports of Susheel Kumar and examining them, I could not reach the conclusion that he developed appendicitis due to the alleged assault.