Hyderabad, Jan 19 (PTI): The protests against the alleged suicide by a Dalit research scholar here spread to other cities such as Pune and Mumbai, with calls for the resignation of the vice-chancellor.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi visited the campus and interacted with students, and Trinamool Congress lawmaker Derek O’Brien was scheduled to land here on Tuesday evening.

Police arrested 37 activists of the Telangana Jagruti Youth Front who were part of a larger group shouting slogans outside the house of Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya at Ram Naagar.

The activists said Dattatreya was to blame for the suicide of doctoral scholar Rohit Vemula, who was found hanging in his hostel room on Sunday.

Vemula, who was active in student politics, was suspended by the university last August together with five others and was an accused in a case relating to the assault of a student leader.

On the Hydrabad Central University campus, students demanded action against Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Ramchander Rao, Vice-Chancellor P. Appa Rao and two leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the BJP students’ wing, against whom cases were registered for abetting suicide of Rohit.

Congress lawmaker V. Hanumantha Rao alleged that Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao was responsible for the suicide of the student, and demanded his suspension.

In Pune, the students of Film & Television Institute of India sat on a day-long hunger strike outside the institute's gate, expressing “solidarity” with the Hyderabad students.

A representative of the students’ body, Yashaswi Mishra, said, “We feel that the unfortunate incidents like death of Rohit Vemula is an institutional murder. The very ideology that led to this devastating tragedy has to be fought across.”

The FTII students have been locked in a battle against the BJP government at the Centre against the appointment of a BJP member as the institute’s boss.

In Mumbai, several students held a protest outside the office of Mumbai University in Kalina area to condemn the Dalit student's death.