The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday raided the residence of senior journalist and writer N Venugopal in Hyderabad in connection with a case related to a former central committee member of banned outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist), Sanjay Deepak Rao.

Venugopal, who runs a magazine by name Veekshanam, is the nephew of poet P Varavara Rao, who is among the 15 people charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Bhima Koregaon case in 2018. The searches, which began at 5 am at Venugopal’s residence at Himayatnagar in Hyderabad, went on till 10 am, people familiar with the matter said. Later, the NIA officials confiscated his phone.

While the NIA authorities refused to speak to reporters, Venugopal said he “was forced to surrender his phone”, as they were firm on seizing the same. “They searched all my books and other belongings, before leaving the place,” he said.

According to Venugopal, he was “falsely implicated” in the case pertaining to the arrest of Sanjay Deepak Rao, who was arrested by the Telangana police in September 2023. “I was named as accused No. 22 in the case, though the charges framed against me were completely baseless and false,” he said.

Venugopal said the NIA had booked him and others under the sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Telangana Public Security Act and Arms Act, based on an alleged confession statement of Sanjay Deepak Rao, who said he had met some intellectuals from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in September 2021, to discuss the plan ‘to destabilise the Indian government through armed revolution.’