P Varavara Rao’s daughter, Pavana, said her father registered his written protest with the police on Saturday after he was arrested as they allegedly did not produce any document.“Varavara Rao has marked his protest in writing since he was not given any legal document. We condemn the way my father was taken away by misguiding us,” Pavana told reporters.The family members were told by the police that first he would be taken for medical examination in a local government hospital in Hyderabad, and from there, depending on the availability of flight tickets, he will be taken by a flight. “We were told that he (Rao) would be produced before a holiday court in Pune on Sunday,’’ his daughter said.The police had earlier arrested Rao and four other activists on August 28 for their alleged links with the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit, which the police claim supported and funded the Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017 as part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise the country. The police had produced Rao and activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves before a Pune court on August 29 for their custodial remand, but the court informed them that they were being placed under house arrest as per the Supreme Court’s directives issued the same day.After the Supreme Court’s judgment on September 28, ruling out transfer of the probe to an SIT and allowing the Pune police to continue with their probe, Rao had moved the Hyderabad high court for relief.Around 7.30pm on Saturday, aPune police team, led by assistant commissioner of police Shivaji Patil and supported by the Hyderabad police, came to Rao’s residence and took him away from his apartment around 8.30pm. After the Pune police reached the writer’s house, the gate of the apartment was closed and no one was allowed inside. A large number of policemen, including women, were posted.Pune’s deputy commissioner of police Suhas Bawache, who is supervising the probe, told TOI, “We visited the Hyderabad high court on Saturday and confirmed the orders passed by the court in all his petitions. We have taken a letter from the government pleader that he can be arrested. We have taken him into custody from his residence and conducted his medical check-up after following all legal procedure. We have informed his family members and lawyers about his arrest. He will be produced before a special court in Pune for custodial remand on Sunday.”After Rao was taken into custody, the police brought him till the ground floor in the apartment lift. From there, he was made to walk to the cellar. The family members and his followers were given the impression that he would be taken out from the apartment’s exit gate. But the writer was taken away from the entry gate.A special court on Saturday deferred the hearing on the bail pleas filed by activists Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut in the Elgar Parishad case as the prosecution sought time for filing its say till November 19.(With inputs from Asseem Shaikh)

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