Tag: Taloja prison

  • Bombay HC asks JJ Hospital to form panel to examine Elgar Parishad-accused Stan Swamy 

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court directed the Taloja prison authorities on Wednesday to take Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to the JJ Hospital here for a medical examination.

    Swamy, 84, must be examined at the state-run medical facility at 10.30 am on Thursday, it said.

    A vacation bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and S P Tavade directed the hospital’s dean to form a committee of expert doctors, including a neuro-physician, an ENT specialist, an orthopaedic, a general physician, and other doctor required, to examine Swamy.

    The bench also directed the state government to submit a report of the medical examination before the HC by May 21.

    The court asked authorities of the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, where Swamy is lodged, to arrange for him to be produced before the HC via video-conferencing at 4 pm on May 21, if the prison has such facilities.

    Swamy had approached the HC earlier this year through senior counsel Mihir Desai, challenging a special court’s decision in March wherein the latter rejected his bail sought on medical grounds and on merits.

    During the last hearing in the HC on May 4, a bench led by Justice Shinde directed the state authorities to file a report on Swamy’s current health condition by May 15.

    Advocate Desai had then told the bench that Swamy was arrested in October 2020 and since his arrest, he has remained in the Taloja prison hospital.

    Swamy is in the advanced stage of Parkinson’s disease, Desai had said.

    He has lost the ability to hear, and given the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the court must at least grant Swamy temporary bail, the advocate had said.

    On Thursday, the state and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is conducting a probe into the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, opposed Swamy’s bail plea.

    The state’s counsel, Y P Yagnik, told the HC that Swamy was being taken care of in the prison.

    He said Swamy was being provided hot water for bathing, a sipper cup, hearing aid and two attendants to assist him in the prison.

    Yagnik also said Swamy was taken to the JJ Hospital on Tuesday evening and given the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19.

    Advocate Desai, however, pointed out that inmates were being administered the vaccine in the prison itself and not in hospitals.

    The NIA’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, told the HC that in the past, Swamy himself had expressed satisfaction with the facilities provided to him in the Taloja prison.

    But, advocate Desai said Swamy suffered from various medical ailments and his health had further deteriorated in the past few weeks. On May 17, Desai filed a note in the HC, stating that Swamy’s health condition was further deteriorating. As per the note, Swamy complained of fever and weakness.

    He was taking several allopathic medicines, including anti-biotics prescribed by the Taloja hospital’s Ayurveda doctors, it said.

    The note reiterated that given his ill-health and severe co-morbidities, Swamy was at the risk of contracting coronavirus infection and his life was under “imminent threat due to his medical condition, advanced age, and lack of medical facilities at the Taloja prison”.

    The HC will hear the plea further on May 21.

    The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at a conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district.

    The Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The case was later taken over by the NIA. Several other activists, including Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao, had been arrested in the case.

  • Taloja prison hospital lacks infrastructure: Varavara Rao’s lawyer to HC

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The counsel for poet-activist Varavara Rao, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and currently admitted in a private hospital here, on Tuesday requested the Bombay High Court to grant him bail on the medical grounds, saying the Taloja Prison hospital in Navi Mumbai lacks adequate infrastructure to treat him.

    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, 82, is currently admitted in Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai.

    Rao’s latest medical report from the hospital says 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 anti-depressants.

    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 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, 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 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 an 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 andJustice 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.