Bhima Koregaon Case: Activist Varavara Rao sent to police custody till Nov 26

Mumbai, Nov 18: Activist Varavara Rao, who under house arrest in connection with Bhima Koregaon case, was on Sunday sent to police custody till November 26 by Pune Sessions Court.

Rao was arrested by Pune police from his residence in Hyderabad on Saturday after his house arrest ended on November 17. He was under house arrest since August for having alleged links with CBI (Maoist) in connection with Bhima Koregaon violence.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Pune, on Saturday, said that Rao's house arrest extension given by the Hyderabad High Court ended on Saturday. In addition to that, the JCP said that another petition of the activist before the court is also disposed of by the Hyderabad Court. He will be produced by before the Pune court, added the JCP.

In August, the police raided the homes of the activists and lawyers from five states - Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.

In a media briefing, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence.

The police also claimed they have "conclusive proof" to link Left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end Modi-raj"