The counsel for poet-activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and currently admitted in a private hospital in Mumbai, on Tuesday requested the Bombay High Court to grant him bail on medical grounds. Rao’s counsel said that the Taloja Prison hospital in Navi Mumbai lacked adequate infrastructure to treat the 81-year-old.
Senior advocate Anand Grover told a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale that the Taloja prison where Rao was lodged as an undertrial, does not have the necessary infrastructure to provide proper medical care to him. Rao, 81, is currently admitted in Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. Rao's latest medical report from the hospital said that he is "hemodynamically stable and fit for discharge", Grover told the HC.
"However, once discharged and shifted to the Taloja prison, Rao will require constant monitoring and medical attention, for which the infrastructure at the Taloja prison hospital will be inadequate," Grover said.
Grover said Rao was suffering from kidney failure and a host of other ailments, for which he was being administered around 20 different medicines a day, when he was admitted at the Taloja prison hospital. These medicines were for serious health issues like heart ailments, blood pressure, and recurring delirium with dementia-like symptoms, he said, adding they included blood thinner and antidepressants.
Grover urged the HC to let Rao be with his family to recover fully and be fit to face trial in the case. "The Taloja prison hospital is not equipped to monitor him. There are structural problems. And we do not want the public exchequer to be used for this (Rao's treatment) always, especially when there are two doctors in his house. His daughter and son-in-law are doctors," Grover told the HC.
He said that when Rao was admitted to the government-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai last year, he was not taken care of "properly", and hence he had to be admitted to Nanavati Hospital.
The bench, however, intervened saying state-run JJ Hospital and St George Hospital are considered to be among "the best hospitals" with competent doctors.
"However with the influx of patients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital must have been overwhelmed," the bench said. "Many citizens, including a former Chief Justice of this court, preferred state and civic-run hospitals like JJ and St George over private hospitals," the HC said.
Grover further submitted that Rao was accused in 24 cases earlier and that he was acquitted in all of them.
"He is willing to stand trial tomorrow (in the present case). But that will not be fair. He suffers from a neurological problem. If he is allowed to be with his family, Rao will be in a position to stand for trial," he said.
National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the bench that Rao had recovered enough to be discharged from the private hospital and be shifted to the Taloja prison. The ASG also said that Rao's initial medical reports did not mention that he suffered from dementia.
At this point, the bench asked if dementia was a reversible condition, "and how could it be that Rao's counsel said he suffered from dementia but the NIA said he did not".
Grover explained that Rao is prone to delirium as his sodium levels keep plunging low. "This delirium brings about repeated symptoms of dementia," he said.
The HC will continue hearing the arguments on Rao's bail plea on Wednesday. Rao has been in and out of JJ Hospital and the Taloja prison hospital since his arrest in June, 2018.
On July 16 last year, Rao tested positive for coronavirus, after which he was shifted to Nanavati Hospital. He was discharged from the hospital following a final assessment report on July 30 and sent back to the Taloja prison.
In December last year, Rao was admitted to the private hospital again following the intervention of a bench of Justice Shinde and justice MS Karnik. Besides his bail plea on medical grounds, the HC is also hearing a writ petition filed by Rao's wife Hemlatha, alleging a breach of his fundamental rights due to his continued incarceration without adequate medical care.
Rao and a few other left-leaning activists were arrested for alleged links with Naxals following the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017.
With inputs from PTI