Associate Professor of Andhra University J. Appa Rao and three others, who were arrested on charge of providing explosives to the banned CPI (Maoist), were granted police custody for three days from Monday by the court of the Special Judicial First Class Magistrate (prohibition and excise), which is also designated court for Maoist cases.
Magistrate of the court S. Aruna Sri granted police custody and the orders were served on the police and the accused, lodged in the Central Jail on Tuesday. However, when the police led by ASP of Narsipatnam went to jail in the morning, Prof. Appa Rao refused to come along since the order did not specify the venue of police interrogation, his advocate N.H. Akbar said.
In the order Ms. Aruna Sri while granting police custody from 6 p.m. on November 17 to 6 p.m. on November 20 directed the police not to use any third degree methods against the accused and not to cause injuries to them. The accused were allowed to take the assistance of their legal counsel during the investigation. The police should produce the accused before the court on November 20 after getting them examined by a medical officer.
