HYDERABAD: Shirisha, the widow of late Akkiraju Haragopal alias RK, a CPI (Maoist) Polit Bureau Member, has urged the State government to return the copies of a memoir of her husband, which was seized by police officials from Navya Printing Press in Moosarambagh. The press is owned by POW president Sandhya's husband Ramakrishna Reddy on Friday.
Addressing mediapersons at Somajiguda Press Club on Sunday, she said that the confiscated book contained nothing but articles and interviews published in newspapers after RK had led the Maoist delegation during failed talks with the then government of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
"I had collected all articles and wanted to compile a book to be released at the condolence meeting being organised by the 'Bandhu Mitrula Sangham'. If a person dies, is there no freedom to hold a condolence meeting?" Shirisha asked, requesting the government to let her release the book and to quash the case filed against Ramakrishna Reddy, as the book had no hidden agenda behind it.
V Venkatramaiah, State Secretariat Member of CPI (ML) New Democracy, said that the move by the State government was nothing short of fascism, and questioned what was wrong in a democracy to hold a meeting to remember a revolutionary like RK, who had dedicated his life till his last breath for the cause of downtrodden sections of the society.
He implored the Telangana DGP to reveal what content in the book was in violation of law. Professor G Haragopal observed that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who had come to power assuring that Maoist agenda would be his agenda, had been acting in contravention since coming to power.