VC, Minister and institute responsible for Rohith Vemula's suicide : Rahul Gandhi

"The conditions for Rohith Vemula's suicide was created by Vice Chancellor, the minister and the institution," he said while addressing students at the Hyderabad Central University.

 "Rohith came here to improve this country, to learn and express himself. He was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself,"  Rahul Gandhi said.

Gandhi said he was not politicising the incident, but the fact was that when some youngsters felt they wanted to express certain ideas, the institute, instead of letting them speak, used power to crush them.

"University here used its power to crush them (Dalit students). Minister in Delhi has not acted fairly...he  was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself."

"Vice Chancellor has not had the decency to meet Rohith's mother...it's an insult to the institution and country and every student," he said.

Rohith's suicide has triggered a political storm with two central ministers, Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, facing allegations that their pressure led to action against the student.

Rohith and the four other students were suspended and asked to stay away from the hostel for allegedly beating an activist from the BJP's student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad in August, during a protest on campus against the execution of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.

The students had earlier been cleared by the university. But four months later in December, the university reversed its decision and took action against the students.

Protesters allege that the university's decision was linked to a letter that Bandaru Dattatreya, the BJP parliamentarian from Secunderabad, wrote to Education Minister Smriti Irani alleging that the university had become a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics".

After  Dattatreya's letter, four letters went to the university from Smriti Irani's Human Resource Development ministry, asking what action had been taken.

Bandaru Dattatreya has been named in a police complaint and has been accused of compelling the university to punish Rohith and his comrades. Students and activists have been protesting outside his home