Dalit researcher raises caste abuse plaint, put behind bars in Kerala

 On the very day when the country was shocked by the suicide of a Dalit student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Dalit research scholar was arrested and ended up behind bars in Kerala for crying foul over the police indifference to her complaint of caste abuse and harassment by a faculty of MG University in Kottayam.

Deepa P Mohanan, a research scholar of MG University was arrested by police when she went live on Facebook video from the office of Superintendent of Police, Kottayam after she was refused a meeting with the officer. She had gone there to submit a complaint against police stance in her case. Deepa, an activist of Ambedkar Students' Association, had raised a complaint of caste abuse by a faculty of MG University last year. 

The High Court rejected Deepa's complaint the other day by taking the report of DySP of Crime Detachment at face value. Deepa went to SP's office on Monday to complain against the police report. But the SP was not ready to meet her. Following this, the researcher went live on Facebook, which was disrupted by the police. Later, she was arrested and was charged with a non-bailable case for obstructing the discharge of official duty. 

 Deepa alleged that the faculty began targeting her ever since she bagged the first rank in the M.Phil entrance examinations. Even after she completed the course, she was refused the certificate. She passed the GATE exam and directly joined the PhD programme. In the meanwhile, she lost two years, Deepa said. 

The Dalit researcher also alleged that the authorities were not ready to accept her PhD thesis proposal. Following repeated complaints, the University decided to take action following a report by a syndicate sub-committee. 

Deepa made headlines when she questioned the honesty of the Students Federation of India (SFI) when it took up the Rohit Vemula case. Why is the SFI silent in the Dalit discrimination in Kerala, she asked citing that she received little support from the left-wing students' organisation. 

• Dalit Researcher
• Deepa P Mohanan
• SFI
• caste discrimination
• Rohit Vemula
• JNU