Bhima Koregaon raids: Telugu poet Varavara Rao reaches Hyderabad home after SC orders to keep activist under house arrest till 6 Sept

Hyderabad: Left leaning Telugu poet and writer Varavara Rao who was arrested by the Pune Police for his alleged links with Maoists reached home on Thursday morning after the Supreme Court directive. The apex court on Wednesday ordered that the five activists, arrested on 28 August in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case, should be kept under house arrest till 6 September. “They (Pune Police) brought him home at 7 in the morning. He was brought to the city by flight,” Rao’s wife Hemalatha told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_5076341” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Revolutionary writer P Varavara Rao, arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, being produced at a court in Pune on Wednesday. PTI[/caption] She further said the police is not allowing anyone except his daughters and sons-in-law into or out of the house. When PTI tried to talk to Rao, she said he is not allowed to talk to the media as per the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Zone) Viswa Prasad in a message said the Hyderabad Police would be managing Rao’s house arrest. Earlier, there was confusion as to whether the local police or Pune Police would manage the writer’s house arrest. “We will always standby to the Pune Police,” Chikkadpally police inspector S Bhim Reddy said. Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Farreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha was arrested from New Delhi. The Maharashtra police had arrested them in connection with an FIR lodged there following an event — ‘Elgaar Parishad’ (conclave) — held on 31 December last year that had triggered violence at Koregaon-Bhima village.