NIA case: Eminent citizens appeal to Amit Shah to bail out weavers' leader Macherla Mohan Rao

AMARAVATI: Eminent citizens, including Padma awardees and prominent NGOs of handloom weavers, handicrafts, and artisans have urged the Union home minister Amit Shah to immediately intervene to bail out handloom weavers’ leader Macharla Mohan Rao in a National Investigation Agency (NIA) case.
The handloom weavers associations and handicraft and artisans associations have signed a petition to the Union home seeking urgent relief to Mohan Rao who was summoned by the NIA.
Laila Tyabji of Dastakar of Delhi, who received Padmashree in 2012, Rajeev Sethi, of Asian Heritage Foundation, who got Padma Bhushan in 1986, have also signed on the petition.
"Mohan Rao Macherla has been involved in handloom weavers and handicraft artisan welfare activities and connecting them with the government policies for the last 35 years. In an attempt to help the cause of handloom weavers and handicrafts, Mohan Rao had even met then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, defense minister George Fernandez and many union ministers and secretaries in the last three and half decades. Amit Shah jee should intervene to help a selfless social activist as it seems that Mohan Rao’s name was erroneously included in the list of suspects by NIA,” said the petitioners.
They said that Mohan Rao has been instrumental in organizing several meetings and round table conferences in Constitution Club, Delhi since 2015 onwards which was attended by MPs from all political parties to discuss, consult and resolve issues related to handloom and handicraft sectors.
They explained that Mohan Rao has been a member of the steering committee on handloom and handicraft in the erstwhile Planning Commission for four tenures (1999, 2000, 2012 and 2017).
He has organized International Conference in Chirala, AP in 2019 to promote India’s art, heritage, handloom, handicraft and culture in India and abroad.
“It is surprising to learn that his name has been mentioned first in the search warrant of NIA issued by the Special Judge NIA Court Bastar, Jagdalpur (CG) in 2021. Again he was issued a “Notice to attend investigation in c/w RC-01/2021/NIA/RPR” under section 160Cr.PC to appear before the NIA police station, Raipur, Chhattisgarh on September 5, 2022. This was made after re-registration of case RC-01/2021/NIA/RPR on 18/03/2021 on ‘suspicion,” said the eminent citizens.
In view of his selfless and peaceful work in delivering services and impressive record of being a partner in better implementation of government policies for handloom weavers and handicraft artisans for the last 35 years, the NGOs requested Amit Shah to look into the appeal to rectify the error in NIA records where it seems like his name has been erroneously included.