AU Prof. arrested for Maoist links

• Police allege AU Associate Professor J Appa Rao supplied explosives to Maoists
• His wife Mynavathi along with her two children joins protest by students in front of the SP office
• Alleges that cops framed charges against the Prof. who is a tribal

Visakhapatnam: The arrest of an Associate Professor in Telugu Department of Andhra University, Jerra Appa Rao, on Thursday led to students staging a protest in front of the office of the Superintendent of Police here.

Rao was produced before the media in the evening. The police claimed that he had links with Maoists and supplied 300 kg of explosives to them. He was a friend of Maoist leader Ganesh, they alleged. Protesting against the police action, Appa Rao’s wife Mynavathi along with her two children staged a protest on the Waltair main road. A large number of students of Telugu Department and members of various tribal organisations joined the protest. Traffic on this busy road came to a grinding halt.

Mynavathi told The Hans India that a group of 10 persons had knocked on the door of their house on the university campus in the early hours of Thursday and when the professor opened the door, he was whisked away. The police did not allow her to accompany the professor. She rushed to the Three Town Police Station with the help of her husband’s colleagues and filed a complaint, saying that a group of persons, believed to be policemen, had trespassed into her house and abducted her husband.

She said in a chocked voice that her husband had pursued higher education with the help extended by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA). He had been helping poor students since he joined the university and he was not a type of person to indulge in anti-social activities.

The AU staffers and professor’s friends said he, being a tribal, used to campaign for the rights of the tribal people. However, he had of late been busy with academic activity, they said.