New Delhi, Feb. 24: Rohith Vemula's mother Radhika today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi could never feel her pain as he does not have any children and threatened to end her life if students protesting against caste-based discrimination are harassed.

"Modi has no child nor wife. How can he realise the pain of a mother who has lost her young son?" Radhika said after police detained around 200 students who were trying to hold a candlelight protest near India Gate.

The students, many of them from the University of Hyderabad where the Dalit scholar committed suicide last month, were told to leave as soon as they reached close to the protest venue. The police then took them in buses to Tilak Marg police station and Parliament Street police station. They were later freed.

"If this government harasses students seeking justice, I will go for self-immolation," Radhika said after the students were released.

BJP media cell chief Shrikant Sharma said Modi had already expressed grief over Rohith's suicide following alleged caste-based discrimination. "The Prime Minister has said Mother India has lost a son. Our government has inherited the problem of caste-based discrimination in institutions. The government is trying to sort it out. A judicial commission has been set up," Sharma said.

Biswajeet, a Patna University student, said they were gathering peacefully when the police detained them.

Later, CPM MP from Tripura Jitendra Chaudhury and CPI MP D. Raja met senior police officials and requested them to release the students. "The officials said no demonstration is allowed in the entire area near Parliament when a session is on. That is why the students were detained," Chaudhury said.