Maoist letter seized in April hailed Varavara Rao for 'guidance'

A letter purportedly written by a Maoist leader and seized by the police in April this year hails prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao for his alleged "guidance" in various Naxal activities in the country.

Rao was among the five people arrested today for suspected Maoist links. The arrests were made after the Maharashtra police raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states.

The letter in question was part of a bunch of documents seized by the Pune police during the searches at the premises of five people arrested in June this year for alleged links with Maoists. The searches were carried out in different parts of the country in April.

The letter written in Hindi by one comrade named Milind, hails Rao, described as a "senior comrade", and advocate Surendra Gadling for their "guidance" in carrying out Naxal activities in various parts of the country.

"In the last few months, due to the guidance by senior comrade Varavara Rao and our legal advisor Comrade adv Surendra Gadling in various activities, we received good publicity at the national level," reads the letter, a copy of which is also with PTI.

The letter, whose authenticity could not be verified independently, also talks about Rao raising funds for future "operations" and Gadling being given the responsibility to provide those funds to the "jungle comrades".

The undated letter also has a mention of some meeting to be held in Nagpur where Rao and Gadling were supposed to speak.

The June arrests of five people, including prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale, were made in connection with violent clashes at Koregaon-Bhima village near here on January 1.

Rao and four others were arrested under IPC Section 153 (A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, said an official.