In a latest development to the investigation of the Bhima Koregaon Case, the National Investigation Agency or the NIA has summoned activist K Satyanarayana. K Satyanarayana is a Dalit scholar and activist and he is also the son-in-law of already arrested activist and poet Varavara Rao.
Satyanarayana has been summoned and asked to appear before the NIA special court in connection to the Bhima Koregaon Case. Satyanarayana’s father-in-law and poet Varavara Rao is presently jailed inside the Taloja Jail in Mumbai. He was arrested in association with the Elgar Parishad Case on August 31,2018. Satyanarayana’s brother and senior journalist KV Kumarnath has also been asked to appear before the NIA for questioning in association with the Bhima Koregaon Case in Mumbai.
M Satyanarayana has repeatedly maintained that he had no connection to the Bhima Koregaon Case and was in no way involved with it. He also said that the fact that Varavara Rao happens to be his father-in-law is being used against him and his house was raided in 2018 on this pretext. The NIA has also summed professor Partho Sarothi Ray who is Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research to appear before it for the purpose of questioning in relation to the Elgar Parishad Case. He has summoned by the court on September 10. Ray too has denied that he has anything to do with the case and alleged that the NIA is trying to harass him.
We have been seeing that several academics and scholars have been arrested by the NIA in relation to the Bhima Koregaon Case so far.One of the recent arrests made in this context is that of Delhi University Hany Babu . Hany Babu was arrested on July 28. Many critics have condemned the move and have seen it as a deliberate move to curtail dissent. Several activists such as Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde have been arrested in connection to the Bhima Koregaon Case so far.
