The relatives and friends of revolutionary writer Varavara Rao who arrived from Hyderabad and Mehboobnagar in Telangana to meet the Elgar Parishad case accused were unable to meet him on Tuesday. Police cited election bandobast as the reason for lack of escort to bring him to the court.
Rao, along with Rona Wilson, were scheduled to appear in court to ask for bail. However, only Shoma Sen and Sudha Bhardwaj, who seem to have lost weight since her arrest, appeared in court.
Among the 26 people who arrived from the south in an air-conditioned private bus was Ala, 12, a Class 4 student. Ala is the youngest granddaughter of Rao whose family include his wife and three daughters. Ala is the younger of the two daughters of Rao’s second daughter Annalla. Annalla was also present along with her mother Hemlatha and cousin N Venugopal who runs a magazine in Hyderabad.
“We knew that we would not be allowed to talk to him, but at least we could have shaken hands with him. We travelled overnight to see him,” said Raghav Acharya, convenor of Mehboobnagar study forum. The forum held a reading of Rao’s poetry on February 3. The visiting group, including family members, artists, teachers, poets, singers and authors, also visited Samata Bhumi, also known as Mahatma Phule Wada, and Vijay Stambh in Bhima-Koregaon.
“Many people, including Sahitya Akademi poetry award winner Devi Priya, attended the poetry reading organised by us. She suggested that VV’s supporters go to Pune to meet him. However, only blood relatives are allowed to meet him. This is bizarre. VV has in fact translated to Telugu the jail manual in Telangana which allows people to meet in jail,” said Venugopal.
{{/usCountry}}“Many people, including Sahitya Akademi poetry award winner Devi Priya, attended the poetry reading organised by us. She suggested that VV’s supporters go to Pune to meet him. However, only blood relatives are allowed to meet him. This is bizarre. VV has in fact translated to Telugu the jail manual in Telangana which allows people to meet in jail,” said Venugopal.
{{/usCountry}}While the bail hearing was scheduled for the next date, the police submitted a written response to the application by Surendra Gadling, another arrested in the case, that sought cloned copies of electronic evidence gathered by the police. Other miscellaneous applications were discussed before adjournment.