Bengaluru: Telugu poet/public speaker Varavara Rao -- an accused in the Elgar Parishad case --in connection with the 2005 Tumkur Naxal attack case was taken into custody by the Karnataka Police on Wednesday.

The Bengaluru Police took Rao's custody, a senior police officer said.

On February 6, 2005, naxal leader Saket Rajan alias Prem was killed in an encounter in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka.

In retaliation, Naxals attacked the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) battalion in Vennkammanahalli in Tumkur district five days later. They killed seven KRSP personnel and a civilian.

Varavara Rao had addressed public meetings in the Chikkamagaluru area in early 2003. Rao was arrested by Pune Police on August 28 last year in the Elgar Parishad case along with Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navalakha.

Rao was accused of having a nexus with top fugitive Maoist operatives and of being actively involved in the procurement of arms and ammunition, recruitment of students and funding of Maoist activities.

Police said the Maoist-backed Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, and the speeches at the event aggravated the violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune district the next day.