HYDERABAD: It was business as usual at the Hima Sai Heights apartments in Jawaharnagar where rights activist and writer, Varavara Rao has been placed under house arrest in his flat.The police deployment outside the apartment, well-wishers and fellow activists arguing with police to be allowed to meet Rao and the assembly of media persons attracted interest from the public. However, people moved freely in and out of the apartment.
Rao was picked up by Pune police from Hyderabad on Tuesday in connection with Maharashtra’s Bhima-Koregaon violence, for having alleged Maoist links and was placed under arrest at the Vishram Bagh police station in Pune. However, following Supreme Court order on Wednesday directing the police to place Rao under house arrest, Pune police brought him to Hyderabad in an early morning flight. Rao reached his home on Thursday at around 7 am.
Speaking to media at Hyderabad airport, Rao claimed that the police have filed a false case against him. “This is a false case. If the fight against fascist policies is called a conspiracy, then there cannot be a bigger conspiracy than this,” he said.
He said the case for Koregaon-Bhima clashes should have been filed against the Maharashtra government and the Centre and not against the activists.
‘Pune cops ill-treated my dad’
While revolutionary poet and activist Varavara Rao reached home safely on Thursday, his daughter Anala alleged that the Pune Police mistreated her 78-year-old father. “He was made to sleep on the floor and was provided with nothing but a bed sheet,” she said. Rao was detained at the Vishram Bagh police station in Pune.
On Thursday, eight police personnel were put on guard outside Rao’s home, including two from Pune. About 15 cops guarded the entrance of his Hima Sai Heights apartments.However, there was no restriction on movement of people as some close family members, like his son-in-law V Kurmanath and nephew N Venugopal, were allowed to visit him.
Meanwhile, Varavara Rao’s son-in-law K Satyanarayana said he would approach the Supreme Court against the methods used by Pune police to search his house on August 28. “I am going to the Supreme Court. The same team (which is arguing for Varavara Rao), they found my case to be a fit case (to be challenged). I am also submitting details to them today,” he told news agency PTI.
“They (police) treated me like I am a terrorist. They did not leave me even while I was answering nature’s call. They even took out and started reading personal and intimate letters between me and my wife written before our marriage. My wife objected to that,” Satyanarayana added.
(With inputs from PTI)