National Investigation Agency-Mumbai officials had sent notices summoning a university professor K. Satyanarayana and a senior journalist K.V. Kurmanath, both from Hyderabad, to appear before them on Wednesday in connection with Bhima Koregaon case.
Mr. Satyanarayana working with English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) and Mr. Kurmanath, Deputy Editor with the The Hindu-BusinessLine daily, are sons-in-law of revolutionary writer Varavara Rao, who had been in jail for over past 18 months after being arrested by Maharashtra police on charges of links with the outlawed CPI-Maoist.
The NIA authorities summoned both of them to appear as witnesses under sections 160 and 91 of Criminal Procedure Code on the same day and time.
Pune police of Maharashtra raided the professor’s flat in August 2018 stating that they had to conduct searches to gather evidences against his father-in-law Varavara Rao. By then already a case was registered against Mr. Rao. His flat in Chikkadpally here too was searched along with some others then.
“I stated on the day of searching my flat by Maharashtra police that I was no way connected to Bhima Koregaon police,” Mr. Satyanarayana said. “The fact of Mr. Rao being my father-in-law was used to raid my house and cause mental agony to my family,” he said.
Stating that he was a family member of Mr. Rao, the professor reiterated that he had no links whatsoever with Bhima Koregaon case. The notices sent by NIA, in the backdrop of deteriorating health of Mr. Rao in Maharashtra prison and the Coronavirus pandemic spreading fast, distressed the family, he said.
A special team of Pune police landed in Hyderabad and arrested Varavara Rao on August 28, 2018 alleging that he had connections with CPI-Maoists and conspired to create disturbances in Maharashtra from his flat here. He was taken to Pune. Following a writ petition filed by historian Romilla Thapar, Supreme Court passed an order to keep the writer under house arrest.
That time searches were also made at professor Satyanarayana’s house. The writer’s house arrest period was extended from time to time by the apex court.
However, in November the same year Pune police arrested the revolutionary writer and shifted him to a prison in Maharashtra. Mr. Rao was in the prison since then.
