Hyderabad: The Maharashtra Police on Tuesday arrested Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao here for his alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate prime minister Narendra Modi, his family members said.
A police team from Pune arrested the revolutionary writer after searching his house and the houses of his family members and friends including a journalist.
Varvara Rao was shifted to the government-run Gandhi Hospital for a medical check-up. He is likely to be produced before a court here before shifting him to Pune.
In June, police in Pune had allegedly recovered a letter mentioning a plan to assassinate Modi from the house of one of the five persons arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.
The letter written by a person identified only as 'R' reportedly mentions a plot to kill the prime minister on the lines of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
It also referred to requirement of Rs 8 crore to purchase a M-4 rifle and four lakh rounds to execute the plot. The letter reportedly mentions Varvara Rao's name.
Varvara Rao, who heads 'Veerasam', an association of revolutionary writers, had strongly denied the allegations. He had said that all five arrested in the case were working for the betterment of downtrodden.
Protest at EFLU
Hyderabad police raided the residence of K Satyanarayana, head of cultural studies department at English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) and the son-in-law of Varavara Rao. A team of cops from Maharashtra police, all in civil dress, reportedly barged into the residence of Satyanarayana with a warrant written in Marathi and raided the house without prior intimation. The policemen took Satyanarayana into custody and carried out a quick interrogation regarding his social activities and writings.
“They pulled out clothes, utensils and books from our shelves and panicked the entire neighborhood. There have never been any police case or charge sheet against me so far. We academicians draw conclusions from our exercise of extensive reading. Cops asked me why did I read so much. They advised us that too much reading can be dangerous at times,” Satyanarayana told media.
Satyanarayana led a march to the university along with his wife Pavana and students. Students of EFLU organized a protest gathering against the nationwide arrests of left-wing activists and revolutionaries calling it 'an alarming infiltration of political freedom.' Students who gathered in front of the main gate of EFLU, raised placards and slogans against the 'unjust and arbitrary action' from the part of Centre and Maharashtra police.
Another son-in-law of Varavara Rao KV Kurmanath, a journalist, was stopped by the Maharashtra police as he took a walk in the morning. The cops confiscated his cell phone, laptop and the hard-disc of his son's playstation after a detailed raid at his Hyderabad house.