Hyderabad, Jan. 30: A group of students who formed the Rohith Vemula Memorial Science Club in the University of Hyderabad have paid a fitting birthday tribute to their departed friend by organising a planet and star-gazing event on the campus on Monday evening.

Rohith, a PhD student of the University of Hyderabad, had committed suicide on January 17 last year, days after he, along with four others, were barred from the hostels for allegedly assaulting an ABVP leader on the campus.

In his suicide note, where he terms his birth as "a fatal accident" Rohith had also described his love for science, the stars and nature.

"I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second-hand. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs coloured. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt," he had written.

Rohith, who was pursuing his PhD in Science, Technology and Society Studies, wrote: "I don't believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds."

"Given his Dalit background, his wish to travel to the stars, and the star he has become for the Dalit rights movement, the event was named 'From Shadows to the Stars'," Munna Sannaki of the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice at the university said.