<p>Telugu “revolutionary” writer Varavara Rao’s two sons-in-law have said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Mumbai, has summoned them to appear before it on September 9 in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.</p>.<p>Rao sons-in-law are K Satyanarayana, a professor at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, and K V Kurmanath, a senior journalist with a business newspaper in the city.</p>.<p>Rao was arrested by Pune Police from his Hyderabad house in November 2018 in the case indicting Maoist links and an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been lodged in a Maharashtra jail.</p>.<p>Satyanarayana said that he and Kurmanath were asked to appear before NIA, Mumbai, as witnesses under Sections 91 and 160 of Criminal Procedure Code.</p>.<p>“It is a fact that I am related to Varavara Rao but I reiterate that I have no connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case,” Satyanarayana said adding that his flat was raided by Pune Police in August 2018 “under the pretext of collecting evidence against my father in law and revolutionary poet Rao.”</p>.<p>Rao was moved back to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai on August 27 after his treatment for Covid-19 and other health conditions at Nanavati Hospital.</p>.<p>“NIA notice adds to our family distress at a time when Rao’s health condition is not very good, and the pandemic is fast spreading in Mumbai. I am summoned to Mumbai in these terrible times,” Satyanarayana said in a statement.</p>.<p>Kurmanath too confirmed the notices issued to him, to appear as a witness before NIA.</p>.<p>The Elgar Parishad case against Rao and few other noted activists including Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha pertains to their suspected Maoist link and the inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police allege has caused large scale violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018. </p>.<p>The case was transferred from Maharashtra Police to NIA in January 2020.</p>
<p>Telugu “revolutionary” writer Varavara Rao’s two sons-in-law have said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Mumbai, has summoned them to appear before it on September 9 in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.</p>.<p>Rao sons-in-law are K Satyanarayana, a professor at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, and K V Kurmanath, a senior journalist with a business newspaper in the city.</p>.<p>Rao was arrested by Pune Police from his Hyderabad house in November 2018 in the case indicting Maoist links and an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been lodged in a Maharashtra jail.</p>.<p>Satyanarayana said that he and Kurmanath were asked to appear before NIA, Mumbai, as witnesses under Sections 91 and 160 of Criminal Procedure Code.</p>.<p>“It is a fact that I am related to Varavara Rao but I reiterate that I have no connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case,” Satyanarayana said adding that his flat was raided by Pune Police in August 2018 “under the pretext of collecting evidence against my father in law and revolutionary poet Rao.”</p>.<p>Rao was moved back to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai on August 27 after his treatment for Covid-19 and other health conditions at Nanavati Hospital.</p>.<p>“NIA notice adds to our family distress at a time when Rao’s health condition is not very good, and the pandemic is fast spreading in Mumbai. I am summoned to Mumbai in these terrible times,” Satyanarayana said in a statement.</p>.<p>Kurmanath too confirmed the notices issued to him, to appear as a witness before NIA.</p>.<p>The Elgar Parishad case against Rao and few other noted activists including Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha pertains to their suspected Maoist link and the inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police allege has caused large scale violence at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018. </p>.<p>The case was transferred from Maharashtra Police to NIA in January 2020.</p>
