Varavara Rao's surrender date extended to Dec 18

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the National Investigation Agency NIA to get poetactivist Varavara Rao medically examined at Nanavati hospital in the city to check if he suffered from any ailments that warranted extension of his medical bailThe HC also extended till December 18 the time for Rao to surrender before the Taloja prison authoritiesAs per HCs previous order Rao was to have been medically examined on November 18 but the NIA told the court on Friday it was yet to get his medical checkup doneThe NIA counsel Sandesh Patil said the delay was caused because several doctors were required to check Rao since the 83yearold was taking advantage of the courts order and trying to get a comprehensive health check up doneAt the time of seeking medical bail earlier this year he Rao had complained of cataract hernia and appendix Now appendix and hernia are over and only cataract remains But he is taking advantage of the courts order and trying to get all tests done Patil saidA bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal however questioned the NIAs submission and said the agency must take a practical approach and consider Raos advanced ageThe point here is to see whether he is still unwell and requires to be on medical bail Consider his age Suppose the medical exam reveals he is suffering from something else Then what will you NIA do the HC saidRao an accused in the ElgarParishad Maoist links case was granted temporary bail on health grounds by HC in February this yearHe was required to surrender before the Taloja prison authorities on September 5 but he approached HC through his counsels R Sathyanarayanan and senior counsel Anand Grover seeking an extension of such bail saying his health continued to be poor and that if sent back to prison it was likely to revert to what it was at the time when he was granted bailHis plea for extension was opposed by the NIA However since September this year HC has been extending Raos date of surrender initially due to its inability to hear the plea because of paucity of time and since November 18 to grant the Central probe agency time to get him medically examined at the Nanavati hospitalOn Friday advocate Grover told HC that in compliance with its orders Rao had been to the Nanvati hospital twice already but on both occasions NIA representatives had failed to appear and the doctors at the hospital said they werent sure if they could go on without the NIAThe NIA wanted a medical examination we didnt ask for it I Rao have been there twice but NIA didnt come Ill go whenever required Grover saidPatil then sought permission to get a representative of the hospital to explain the delay in conducting Raos medical examinationThe representative told the court that specialists including a urologist and a psychiatrist needed to evaluate Raos condition and sought two weeks time to submit his comprehensive medical report before the courtAll parties submitted Rao will be examined and his medical report will be submitted before the courts registry in December 16 after which the HC said it will examine his bail plea on December 17 and that he need not surrender to prison authorities till December 18Rao in his plea has said he continues to suffer from multiple ailments including urinary tract infection with recurrent hyponatremia suspicion of Parkinsons disease lacunar infarcts in six major lobes of the brain and some eye problemsHe has claimed in his plea Taloja prison was not equipped to cater to his medical problems and his health would certainly deteriorate and he might die if sent back to jail and sought his medical bail be extended for another six monthsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever