Maoist letter seized in April purportedly hailed arrested activist Varavara Rao for 'guidance'

A letter purportedly written by a Maoist leader and seized by the police in April this year hails prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao for his alleged "guidance" in various Naxal activities in the country.

Rao was among the five people arrested on Tuesday for suspected Maoist links. The arrests were made after the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states.

The letter in question was part of a bunch of documents seized by the Pune police during the searches at the premises of five people arrested in June this year for alleged links with Maoists. The searches were carried out in different parts of the country in April.

The letter written in Hindi by one comrade named Milind, hails Rao, described as a "senior comrade", and advocate Surendra Gadling for their "guidance" in carrying out Naxal activities in various parts of the country.

"In the last few months, due to the guidance by senior comrade Varavara Rao and our legal advisor Comrade adv Surendra Gadling in various activities, we received good publicity at the national level," reads the letter according to news agency PTI.

The letter, whose authenticity could not be verified independently, also talks about Rao raising funds for future "operations" and Gadling being given the responsibility to provide those funds to the "jungle comrades".

The undated letter also has a mention of some meeting to be held in Nagpur where Rao and Gadling were supposed to speak.

The June arrests of five people, including prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale, were made in connection with violent clashes at Koregaon-Bhima village near here on January 1.

Rao and four others were arrested under IPC Section 153 (A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, said an official. 

Activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were held in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj was arrested in Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested in New Delhi.

Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj, Ferreira, Gonzalves and Navalakha were arrested under the Indian Penal Code Section 153 (A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Some other sections of the IPC were also pressed against those arrested, along with Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their ‘alleged Naxal activities.’

The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalit and the upper caste groups at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad on December 31 last year. 

A police official said all the five, who were arrested later, are suspected to have Maoist links and had allegedly funded the Elgar Parishad conclave.

Security officials in Delhi said two letters, purportedly exchanged by Maoist leaders indicating plans to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, led to the police action.

Historian Ramachandra Guha called the action "absolutely chilling" and demanded the Supreme Court's intervention to stop this "persecution and harassment" of independent voices.

(With PTI inputs)