A written report filed by a doctor suggests she examined Rohith Vemula’s body minutes after he was discovered hanging on January 17 – a revelation that doesn't match the version recounted by HRD minister Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

“Nobody allowed a doctor near this child, to revive this child, to take him to the hospital. Nobody allowed a doctor near him. The police has reported that not one attempt was made to take him to a doctor. Instead what was done was that his body was used as a political tool, hidden,” Irani had told the House on Wednesday during a debate on caste-based discrimination within the university.

But Rajasree Malpath, chief medic at the University of Hyderabad’s health centre, told The Telegraph on Thursday: “I reached the room where Vemula was found within five minutes of receiving an alert (around 7.30pm on January 17). His body was beyond revival.”

The body was “cold, stiff and rigid,” with signs of rigor mortis (a stiffening of the muscles and limbs within the body that begins about 2 hours after death), Malpath said.

“I examined the body for ten minutes and declared him dead,” Malpath, who has over 20 years’ expertise as a doctor and has in the past examined many suicide victims who had hanged themselves, told reporters in Hyderabad in the afternoon.

However, until late tonight, neither the Union government nor the HRD minister had responded to the revelation. HRD officials failed to reply to queries.

It is not clear whether or not Irani had planned to issue any clarification or back up her version with additional info throughout her debate in the Rajya Sabha. She could not complete her reply because the House was adjourned following an uproar over references to god Durga and Mahishasura.

Malpath’s report said she had received a call around 7.30pm on January 17 and reached the hostel wherever she found Vemula’s body placed on a cot. The report added  that pulse was not palpable, there have been no heart sounds and no respiration. Vemula was declared dead around 7.40pm.

“On 17th Jan, around 7:30 pm I received a call. I reached there (Rohith’s room) within a few mins. My procedure started right when I received call, I followed protocol, but he was dead,” Malpath told ANI.

“Police came after 15-20 mins. My role started around 7:30 in the evening, can’t say what happened before that,” she added.

Later, the autopsy report place the time of death between 1pm and 3pm. In line with the police, the closest control room received calls from friends of Rohith shortly after 7.15pm

Zikrullah Nisha, a student, posted on Facebook: “I was the person who called the health centre immediately after learning that Rohith had hanged himself in the hostel. within five minutes, Dr Rajshree reached the spot, checked the pulse and declared him dead.”

Against the background of the versions of the doctor and therefore the students, it's not clear whether or not Irani meant Rohith was found hanging in the afternoon, however the data was deliberately kept under covers till 7.20pm. If that was indeed what the minister had meant, no proof had been made public to support such a hypothesis until late tonight.

Irani had additionally told the Lok Sabha: “No police was allowed till 6.30 next morning, it is not me but the Telangana police saying this.”

Malpath, the doctor, said: “The police arrived at the hostel within 15 to 30 minutes – students and police requested me to remain on and i remained there until nearly midnight.”

Irani’s statement suggests she could have been relating the time the police were “allowed” to do something, not the time they arrived. If Irani meant the police were not allowed access to the body, that does not match what the students, Malpath and a senior officer have said.

If the minister meant the police weren't allowed to require the body for post-mortem at midnight, a minimum of one student and police sources verified her version, however with the rider that the target was to remove the stress on the field.

Kartikeya, the deputy commissioner of police who is in charge of the investigation, said the police had reached within minutes after receiving a call, but there was an obstruction when they wanted to shift the body for the autopsy.

“The police had reached in the evening itself, and wanted to shift (Vemula’s) body to the hospital for post-mortem, but students obstructed (us) for some time,” Kartikeya said over the phone.

Vemula, a PhD scholar, and 4 alternative Dalit students had been punished  by the university for allegedly assaulting a pacesetter of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of the RSS.