Intellectuals, including ailing poet Varavara Rao, and Professor G N Saibaba, and several other political prisoners should be immediately released from jails in Maharashtra in the wake of outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, said CPI (ML-ND) State assistant secretary P Ranga Rao.
There were clear-cut guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to release older people and those with pre-existing health conditions from prisons to protect them and safeguard their human rights in view of the vulnerability of the prisoners to COVID-19, he said.
He was speaking at a “Deeksha” organised by the CPI (ML-ND) district committee at Ramnarsaiah Vignana Kendram here on Sunday in conformity with physical distancing regulations to press for the release of Mr Varavara Rao and other political prisoners.
"Several intellectuals including poets, scholars and human rights defenders were falsely implicated by the fascist elements at the helm at the Centre in a bid to suppress the voice of dissent," he charged.
Most countries around the world released prisoners from jails in adherence to the WHO guidelines to protect them from COVID-19.
But the BJP-led Central government chose to keep many political prisoners of advanced age and those ailing from health issues behind the jail walls, he alleged.
He demanded that the cases "foisted" against the human rights defenders be dropped.
The intellectuals, including Mr Varavara Rao, Prof. Saibaba, and Prof. Anand Teltumbde, human rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Naviakha and other political prisoners should be released either on bail or parole without further delay, he said.
Mr Rao said the Telangana government should ensure the release of Mr Varavara Rao, who had played a pivotal role in separate Telangana movement for decades, in view of his advanced age and deteriorating health condition.
