Varavara Rao at 81 can’t be threat to nation, Congress’ Adhir Ranjan writes to PM Modi, seeks poet’s release 

Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention for the release of Telugu poet Varavara Rao who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in Maharashtra.

Rao at 81 years of age "cannot be a threat to one of the strongest countries" in the world, Chowdhury said.

"A person of 81 years of age has been languishing in jail for years without knowing his offence, now he has been mentally disoriented, having no medical assistance.

"You may please intervene into this matter and save his life, otherwise our future generations will not forgive us (sic)," he wrote in his letter to Modi.

Rao and nine other activists were arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, which was initially probed by the Pune police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency in January this year.

The case pertains to the 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 located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

The poet was admitted to J J Hospital in Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of dizziness.