Bhima Koreagon case: Pune court remands poet Varavara Rao in police custody till 26 November

Pune: Telugu poet Varavara Rao, accused of having Maoist links, was on Sunday remanded in police custody till 26 November. Rao was taken into custody in Hyderabad on Saturday after his house arrest ended on 15 November and his petition to quash the transit remand was disposed of by a court there the next day. 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. [caption id=“attachment_5076341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Revolutionary writer P Varavara Rao was arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. PTI[/caption] District government pleader Ujjwala Pawar, while seeking police custody of 14 days, told the court that Rao had a nexus with top CPI (Maoist) fugitive 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. The police alleged that these activists had links with the Maoists, who had backed Elgar Parishad event held in Pune on 31 December last year. The event, the police alleged, led to the violence at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district the next day.