Students at the university have been boycotting classes since then, alleging that the Vice Chancellor and union minister Bandaru Dattatreya unfairly pushed for Mr Vemula and four of his friends to be suspended.
The suicide of a young research scholar which has incited large student protests across the country is being misrepresented with "malicious intent" as "a Dalit vs non-Dalit confrontation," said Education Minister Smriti Irani.
"This was not a caste battle," Ms Irani said, amid a national debate about whether caste discrimination pushed Rohith Vemula to hang himself at the Hyderabad Central University on Sunday.
Students at the university have been boycotting classes since then, alleging that the Vice Chancellor and union minister Bandaru Dattatreya unfairly pushed for Mr Vemula and four of his friends to be suspended after they clashed in August with students from the BJP's youth wing, the ABVP.
Ms Irani denied that her ministry had pushed for the students to be punished by
sending five reminders to the Vice Chancellor after Mr Dattatreya sent a letter to the Education Ministry demanding action against the Dalit students. One of the letters from Ms Irani's officers refers to the minister's complaint as "VIP reference". Both Mr Dattatreya and the Vice Chancellor are being investigated for aiding the suicide; they have denied any wrongdoing.
Ms Irani said today that the notes from her ministry - were standard procedure for complaints filed by parliamentarians. She said her ministry initiated similar follow up in 2014 after a Congress MP, Hanumantha Rao, sent a letter about the alarming number of suicides at the same university (nine in 10 years, according to some reports).
After a preliminary inquiry exonerated Mr Vemula and his friends of beating up an ABVP leader, a second committee found them guilty and suspended them in December and barred their access to the hostel, library and cafeteria, though they were allowed to attend classes. Mr Vemula hung himself on Sunday in the hostel.