HYDERABAD: A day after revolutionary writer P Varavara Rao was arrested from his Gandhinagar residence here and taken to Pune on a transit warrant by Pune Police, a local court on Sunday morning sent him to police custody till November 26 for further investigation into the clashes at Bhima Koregaon in 2017.
Earlier, the Hyderabad High Court had dismissed Rao’s petition seeking quashing of charges against him and questioning the validity of a transit remand order issued on August 28 by the Hyderabad Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. Rao is accused of involvement in an alleged plot my Maoists to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, members of various people’s rights organisations including VIRASAM protested at Dharna Chowk condemning the arrest of Varavara Rao by the Pune Police and demanded his immediate release. VIRASAM claimed that poets and intellectuals are not involved any conspiracy and it was, in fact, the governments were the “real conspirator”.
A release from VIRASAM said apprehending Varavara Rao after two-and-half months of house arrest shows how the governments were trying to portray activists as dangerous and resorting to anti-democratic means. “People should raise their voice against this and also fight against the illegal arrests and detentions by police,” the release said. Telangana Praja Front condemned the arrest and called for a movement against the undemocratic policies of the Telangana government.