Pune Court Remands Varavara Rao in Police Custody Till November 26

Varavara Rao was taken into custody in Hyderabad on 17 November, after his house arrest ended on 15 November.

File photo of Varavara Rao being escorted by Pune Police. 

(Photo: ANI)

Telugu poet Varavara Rao, accused of having Maoist links, was on Sunday, 18 November, remanded in police custody till 26 November.

Rao was taken into custody in Hyderabad on Saturday, 17 November, after his house arrest ended on 15 November and his petition to quash the transit remand was disposed of by a court there on 16 November.

He was brought to Pune on Sunday morning and was produced before District and Sessions judge Kishor D Vadane, who remanded him in police custody till 26 November.

District government pleader Ujjwala Pawar, while seeking police custody for 14 days, told the court that Rao had a nexus with top fugitive CPI (Maoist) operatives and was actively involved in the procurement of arms and ammunition, recruitment of students and funding of Maoist activities.

Rao, along with four other activists, was arrested on 28 August after the Pune Police conducted raids at various places in the country in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.

Police alleged that these activists had links with the Maoists, who had backed the Elgar Parishad event held in Pune on 31 December last year.

The Parishad, police alleged, led to the violence at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district the next day.

The prosecution on Sunday told the court that charges related to “sedition and waging war against the state” have been added against all the accused arrested for Maoist links in connection with the Elgar Parishad.

"This is not an ordinary case. This is a case where the integrity and unity of the country is in danger and that is why Section 124 (A) (sedition), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war ) and 121 (A) (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have been added in the chargesheet," Government District Pleader Ujjwala Pawar told the court.

Pawar, while arguing before the court, reiterated that police have intercepted an email communication between Rao and top CPI (Maoist) fugitive leader Ganapathy in which the latter, while expressing concern after the first five arrests, had asked Rao how the letters were leaked.

She sought police custody while citing that police, who have seized several "incriminating" documents, want to interrogate Rao.

She also said the whereabouts of Ganapathy need to be investigated and for that Rao's custody is important.

Pawar added that in the seized letters, there is ample use of code words that had to be investigated.