Poet Varavara Rao taken to hospital

Poet Varavara Rao, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has been taken to J J Hospital in Mumbai after he complained of dizziness, his lawyer said on July 14.
On July 12, the family members of the poet had urged the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care and claimed that when the veteran activist, who hails from Telangana, contacted them last week he was in a “delirious state and hallucinating”.

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

On June 26, the NIA court rejected his plea on the ground that he has been booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), following which he moved the high court.

The poet and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January 2020.

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.