HYDERABAD, 20 August 2005 — Revolutionary writer-poet and former Maoist emissary Varavara Rao has been remanded to judicial custody till Aug. 29.
The Hyderabad police, who had arrested Varavara Rao from his residence in the early hours of yesterday, produced him before the eighth metropolitan magistrate in theevening.
In the remand note, the police stated that Varavara Rao, a founder-member of Virasam (Viplava Rachiyatala Sangham, or Revolutionary Writers Association), was arrested since Virasam was banned along with CPI-Maoist and other frontal organizations.
The magistrate made inquiries from Varavara Rao about the circumstances of his arrest. Varavara Rao said he belonged to Virasam and the ban imposed on this organization by the government was not proper since it had nothing to do with the armed revolutionary groups.
Subsequently, the magistrate remanded him to judicial custody till Aug. 29.
Meanwhile, Virasam president G. Kalyan Rao, who was arrested from Hyderabad Press Club at Bashirbagh, was taken to Saifabad police station. The police was likely to produce him at the residence of a magistrate later last night for judicial remand.
Also yesterday, police officials from the counterintelligence wing raided a house in Toli Chowki and picked up an ISI activist, Mohammed Iftekhar Ali alias Ashfaq (30), on charges of having links with fundamentalist terrorist organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The police said he was the main accused in the crude bomb blast at Saibaba temple in Saroornagar in the city on Nov. 21, 2002 in which two persons were killed and 19 others injured.
