N. Venugopal RAO

Poet, journalist, translator and writer N. Venugopal Rao’s home was raided by the NIA on 8 February 2024 as part of a series of searches of different locations that were allegedly linked to Sanjoy Deepak Rao, a leading member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). 

During the raid, eight members of the NIA entered Venugopal’s home, searching his book collection and confiscating his phone along with a document related to his journalistic reporting. During the raid, Venugopal protested the seizure of his phone, necessary for his journalistic work, noting a pending petition before the Supreme Court regarding the seizure of digital devices belonging to media professionals. Several days after the raid, Venugopal was summoned for interrogation before being released without charge. 

The purported basis for the raids bears similarities to the ongoing case against the BK-16, which includes Venugopal’s uncle, Varavara Rao (see above under ‘On Trial’). Several of those targeted were implicated on the basis of tenuous evidence, including their names allegedly being found on documents stored on a digital device belonging to one of the co-accused, which was later found to have been tampered with malware used to plant evidence via document insertion.

N. Venugopal Rao is a poet, journalist, translator and writer. He is the author of over 30 books and has also translated many publications from English into Telugu. Following over two decades working as a journalist for outlets including the Economic Times and the New Indian Express, Venugopal Rao established Veekshanam, a monthly magazine dedicated to Telegu political economy and society which he continues to oversee as its editor some 20 years later. Venugopal Rao is also co-editor of Varavara Rao: A Life in Poetry (2023), the first collection in English of his uncle’s poems.