Since Feb 2020, Varavara Rao has spent 149 days in hospitals: Bombay HC told

Of the 365 days since last February jailed activistpoet Varavara Rao spent 149 days in the hospital his counsel Indira Jaising told the Bombay High Court Monday to highlight his poor health condition and push for interim bail in the ElgarParishadMaoist links caseThe fact that Rao spent almost half the time in several hospitals made clear his poor health condition Jaising said while arguing that the 82yearold poets continued incarceration was a breach of his fundamental right to life and healthShe urged the court to let Rao out of the Taloja prison where he is lodged as an undertrial and to permit him to go home and stay with his family in HyderabadLife is dear to everyone including a prisoner and the court is here to protect it the senior advocate told a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish PitaleThe record speaks for itself out of the 365 days in a year he has spent 149 days in hospitals she saidThe bench was hearing a writ petition and a medical bail plea filed by Rao through his counsel senior advocate Anand Grover and a writ petition filed by Raos wife Pendyala Hemlatha through Jaising alleging a breach of his fundamental rights due to continued incarcerationBoth Grover and Jaising urged the HC to let Rao out on interim bail even if for a limited period of three months and with any condition that the court deemed fitBoth counsels reiterated that Rao currently admitted to Nanavati Hospital in the city required constant monitoring and medical aid that the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai will be unable to provideJaising cited the case of 38yearold UAPA accused Kanchan Nanaware who died on January 24Nanaware died after six years of incarceration before the trial against her could begin and before her medical bail was decided Jaising told the courtShe told the court that Raos continued incarceration was incompatible with his healthThis is a victimless crime the death penalty will not be attracted as he has not killed anyone she said referring to the 201718 Elgar ParishadMaoist links case in which he is an accusedHe is neurologically compromised The best treatment is with friends and family Jaising saidJaising said Rao had been arrested merely on the basis of some electronic evidence found on a coaccuseds computerWhile stating that his crimes were serious what were his crimes Some evidence was found in a coaccuseds electronic files which mentions his name But that is also a purported conspiracy she saidGrover argued that Rao must be permitted to be taken care of by his family at their home so that he was fit to stand trialHe reminded the court that Rao had faced trial in 24 cases in the past and that he had either been acquitted or discharged in all but oneGrover read out one of Raos poems to show his spirit to tell the court that even in his present condition the octogenarian was willing to stand trialIn the poem Rao said he borrowed the lines of legendary Hindi writer Munshi Premchand to say he was a kalam ka sipahi A soldier with a penHe is willing to go on for trial He wants to show that he has not done anything The other cases against him he was acquitted For him this case is just another case Grover saidResponding to the Maharashtra governments previous statement that once discharged from private Nanavati Hospital Rao will be sent to the prison ward of the staterun JJ Hospital and not the Taloja prison Grover said keeping the poet in the government facility would amount to tortureThe National Investigation Agency NIA however maintained that given the states assurance of sending Rao to the JJ Hospital the court need not grant him medical bailThe court however remarked that a speedy trial was considered part of a citizens fundamental right and in the present case charges were yet to be framed and 200 witnesses were still not examinedAdditional Solicitor General Anil Singh who appeared for the NIA however said a large number of witnesses in a case could not be the ground for granting someone medical bailIt is the responsibility of the state to take care of his Raos health and the state is doing so Singh saidHe said the Nanavati Hospital had already certified that Rao was fit to be discharged from the hospital and that he did not have dementia at presentBut the court pointed out that Raos medical reports from last year mentioned he suffered from dementiaHow can we ignore the reports of JJ Hospital St George and Taloja prison hospital We cant go by the last report only St George report from last year mentions dementia the court saidThe HC closed all arguments in the case and reserved its verdict on Raos medical bail plea and Hemlathas writ petitionTill the courts verdict Rao will remain in the Nanavati Hospital After arrest Rao has been in police and then in judicial custody since August 28 2018 awaiting trialThe case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31 2017 which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the KoregaonBhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra cityThe police have claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links Several activists and academicians have been named as accused in the caseThe case was initially probed by the Pune police and later it was handed over to the NIAThis 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