Malicious Implication – Monstrous Persecution

As I already mentioned in an earlier post, a 14-yeal old case in which Varavara Rao’s name was maliciously implicated is dug up now to further harass, persecute and prosecute him. Here are the ridiculous details of the case:

N Venugopal

* According to police, on February 10, 2005, a Maoist group of about 200 persons attacked a Karnataka State Reserve Police camp set up in a school in Venkatammanahalli near Pavagada in Tumkur district. In the attack with bombs and fire, a police sub-inspector, seven constables and a civilian died and many suffered injuries.

* Police unleashed heavy repression on Tumkur and bordering Anantapur, arrested and tortured over a hundred people and finally booked the case against 24 persons from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

* Here, Karnataka police maliciously and deliberately included the names of Varavara Rao and Gaddar, who were emissaries during 2004 talks between Andhra Pradesh government and Naxalites. The immediate provocation for the police to include their names was their participation in the cremation of Saket Rajan, who was killed by Karnataka police in a fake encounter in Chikmagalur, a couple of days earlier on February 6. Both of them accused Karnataka police of killing Saket Rajan in cold blood.

* However, Karnataka police did not try to arrest Varavara Rao and Gaddar immediately. The police told the court that both of them were “absconding” and asked to split the accused to continue trial against the other accused. That’s how the trial on 19 accused went ahead in District Sessions Court and three accused in Juvenile Court in Bangalore.

* Finally, on October 29, 2011 the Tumkur District Sessions Court acquitted all the 19 accused on benefit of doubt as the investigation could not prove their guilt. All of them including Accused No 1 and 2 were acquitted.

* Then the police appealed against the acquittal judgment in High Court, which did not come up for hearing for the last so many years and it seems it is taken up now.

* Now the police want to run trial against one accused whose case was split from others. Strange thing is that the one to be tried now has nothing to do with the crime, except an allegation of conspiracy, while all those who were actually charged with participation in the crime have been acquitted.
(N Venugopal, Editor at Veekshanam, Telugu Monthly Journal of Political Economy and Society)