The Hindu : Front Page : Police swoop down on ex-Maoist emissaries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 20, 2005

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Police swoop down on ex-Maoist emissaries

Special Correspondent

READY FOR GRILLING?: Varavara Rao at Chaderghat police station in Hyderabad on Friday after he was arrested. - Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: The police in Andhra Pradesh began a crackdown on the organisations, banned two days ago, when they arrested the former Maoist emissaries-- Varavara Rao and G. Kalyan Rao-- amid dramatic circumstances here on Friday.

Mr. Varavara Rao, a leading light of the Revolutionary Writers Association (Virasam in Telugu), was picked up in a pre-dawn swoop from his apartment at Malakpet while Mr. Kalyan Rao was whisked away forcibly immediately after he addressed a press conference at the old Press Club in the evening.

Mr. Varavara Rao was produced before a magistrate after being charged under the provisions of the Public Security Act, 1992, which the Government had invoked to clamp the ban on the Maoists and their frontal organisations, including `Virasam'. He was remanded to judicial custody till August 29 and later shifted amid tight security to Chanchalguda jail. A long list of cases is pending against both Virasam leaders for sharing a dais with Maoist leader, Ramakrishna, and others last year.

Hectic activity

The arrests sparked off hectic activity with the balladeer, Gaddar, rushing to the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to demand Mr. Varavara Rao's release and lifting the ban on Virasam. Dr. Reddy refused to oblige saying that matters had gone beyond his control and that the law would take its own course.

The Director-General of Police, Swaranjit Sen, and the Additional DGP (Intelligence), K. Aravinda Rao, briefed the Chief Minister and the Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy, on the developments. Mr. Sen justified the arrests saying the Virasam leaders were expressly supporting the Maoists. He did not rule out the possibility of arresting Gaddar also.

At around 4 am, a posse of plainclothes policemen banged the doors of Varavara Rao's apartment. However, Mr. Rao's family members did not open the door demanding the presence of uniformed policemen with proper warrants. They explained later that there was a threat to him from the ex-naxalite, Nayeem.

Tough time

The police party then sent for a constable from the nearby Chaderghat police station upon which Mr. Rao relented. After a 90-minute long tussle during which media teams landed on the scene, the `Virasam' leader was shifted to the station. A steady stream of rights' activists met him at the police station to express solidarity until he was shifted to the Nampally courts in the evening.

The arrest of Mr. Kalyan Rao, who had reportedly gone underground after imposition of the ban, turned out to be a media event. He had convened a press meet at short notice at the old Press Club in Basheerbagh to condemn his colleague's arrest. On getting wind of his presence, the police descended on the premises in large numbers and waited till he came out.

They had a tough time in arresting him as slogan-shouting `Virasam' members put up stiff resistance and squatted in front of the waiting jeep. In between, there was a minor scuffle between the policemen and photographers. The police physically lifted him into the vehicle and drove him to Saifabad police station.

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