Protests outside Dattatreya's home over Hyderabad student's suicide
Reports said Rahul Gandhi is heading to Hyderabad amid anger and protests over Rohith Vemula's suicide.
A police case has been registered against union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who has been accused of aiding the suicide with a letter he had written in August.
Rohith, a 26-year-old doctorate student, was found hanging in a hostel room. "No one is responsible for my act of killing myself," he wrote in a suicide note.
Eight students were arrested on Monday after a night of protests in which a large group sat with Rohith's body and raised slogans alleging discrimination against Dalits.
Rohith and four other research scholars had been living in a tent outside the campus gate since they were thrown out of the hostel on December 21, and asked to stay away from the mess and other common areas. Rohith was "heartbroken", his friends say.
The five students, all members of the Ambedkar union, had been accused of attacking an activist of the BJP's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August, allegedly during a protest against the execution of 1993 Bombay blasts convict Yakub Memon.
The university cleared them in an initial inquiry, but reversed its decision in December and took action against the five scholars.
Students have blamed the action on union minister Bandaru Dattatreya's letter in August to Education Minister Smriti Irani, alleging that the university had become a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics."
Along with the minister, Vice Chancellor Appa Rao also faces charges of aiding Rohith's suicide.
Education Minister Smriti Irani has sent a team to investigate what happened.
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