Hany Babu Musaliyarveettil Tharayil, an associate professor in the Department of English of Dehli University, has recently been arrested and is now in judical custody until at least the 21th of August.
Hany Babu was arrested on charges related to the same event that revolutionary poet Varavara Rao was arrested for as well. They are claimed to have attended an event on the 31th December 2017 where "provocative speeches" were held . Based on this his house was searched last year and he was arrested in late July. They searched his house again after his arrest, taking mostly material related to his membership in the Committee for the Defence and Release of G N Saibaba. Now a special court has decided, that Babu will be in judical custody at least until the 21th of August. Similar to the claims against other arrested intelectuals like Varavara Rao or G.N. Saibaba, the court also brought forth accusations of being part of or associated to the CPI(Maoist).
Protests against his arrested have been made, one which by the All India Students' Association (AISA), which led to a case being thrown a members of them, supposedly based on laws regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic. The student's body benounces this correctly, saying: "From charging students under fabricated cases to even booking them under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the government has left no stone unturned to turn this pandemic to bring an onslaught on all dissenting voices."
