SC extends Varavara Rao’s house arrest till Sept 12

​Hyderabad: The Supreme Court has extended the house arrest of five activists, including Varavara Rao, held in Bhima-Koregaon case till September 12. Before the Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, on Thursday, the Maharashtra police has defended its demand for custody of five activists namely Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonzalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navalakha.

The police said that keeping these activists under house arrest would hamper the investigation in the case. It may be recalled that the Maharashtra police on August 28 raided the homes of the prominent activists in several States and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. The raids were carried out as part of an investigation into an Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year, which had later created  violence at Bhima-Koregaon village.

As the Supreme Court was hearing Elgar Parishad case on Thursday, security arrangements were made at the house of Maoist sympathiser and VIRASAM founder Varavara Rao in Gandhinagar, Hyderabad. As he is under house arrest, the Left parties leaders and other like-minded organisations reached Varavara Rao’s house to meet him and extend their support. However, the police did not allow them inside. Later, Varavara Rao’s wife, Hemalatha came down and met them and held discussions with them. 

Speaking to the media on the decision of Supreme Court to extend the house arrest, Hemalatha Rao welcomed it and said it was their partial victory against the police who made conspiracy and foisted false cases against her husband. She told that the house arrest was for his husband and not for the family members. She criticised the police for not allowing any of the relatives who were coming to meet them. 

Earlier, CPI Telangana Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy met Hemalatha Rao on the premises of Varavara Rao’s house and extended their support to the family members. He slammed both the Central and State governments for gagging the voice of people by foisting false cases against the poets, human rights activists and civil liberty leaders. “Very soon both the governments will see their end if they continue with their anti-people policies,” Chada criticised.