Arrest of Jara Appa Rao, associate professor of Telugu, Andhra University, was illegal and undemocratic and he must be released unconditionally without any delay, his colleagues at the university, representatives of advocates’ associations, employees’ associations and ST and SC associations, renewed their demand on Friday.
At a press meet organised by 12 associations, their representatives expressed their pain over the way the professor was arrested from his quarters at 1 a.m. Some expressed the view that such acts by the police would send wrong signals to society and also to the downtrodden sections.
G. Subba Rao, convenor of Lawyers’ Forum for Social Justice, said no one was above law and the guilty would be punished, but there was a need to follow norms regarding affecting an arrest in a democratic set-up. Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of the university should have been informed before Prof. Appa Rao was arrested, he said. No illegal material was seized from Prof. Appa Rao and he was arrested on the confession of two other accused, Mr. Subba Rao pointed out.
Senior advocate Bypa Arun Kumar said any one pulling up the government’s misdeeds was being branded as a terrorist. Police should have talked to the AU authorities before arresting Prof. Appa Rao, and also rights of a Girijan were violated, Mr. Arun Kumar said.
Devara Venu, professor of Department of Marine Living Resources, said Prof. Appa Rao helped every section of the students but faced a lot of harassment in the hands of the police. Former HoD of Telugu G. Yohan Babu recalled the help and support Prof. Appa Rao extended to his students. Probe sought
I.M. Ahmed, convenor of Coastal Andhra Muslim Intellectuals Association, wanted the Governor, who is Chancellor of the university, to order an inquiry into the issue.
S. Surappadu, a retired HoD of Hindi, felt that such arrests were taking place because the intellectuals were keeping silent and they were also guilty because they failed to respond to the arrest. A. Simhachalam Naidu of APSTEW Association, Killo Dharma Roy of AU ST Employees’ Association, L. Rama of APSTE Association, O. Ramalingam of Girijana Ikya Vedika and others also spoke.
