There is some slight improvement in Varavara Rao’s condition, the High Court has said.
Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court on Thursday said poet-activist Varavara Rao will remain admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai till December 14, although his condition had improved marginally. The 81-year-old was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the December 2017 Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
“There is some slight improvement. He shall remain admitted there till December 14,” a division bench of the Bombay High court, comprising Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik, said today, according to PTI.
On December 14, the court will hear Mr Rao’s petition seeking bail on medical grounds. On the same day, it will also hear a petition filed by his wife, Hemalata, seeking his shift to Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital from jail for medical treatment.
The court’s order today came after it studied a medical report submitted by the Nanavati Hospital, where Mr Rao has been admitted since November 18. On that day, the High Court had observed that Mr Rao suffered from neurological ailments and needed post-COVID-19 care.
A person was on death bed and, under such circumstances, the state government cannot say he should be treated in the jail, the court had said then.
Till November 18, Mr Rao was imprisoned in Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai.
Today, posting the matter for December 14 for further hearing, the high court asked the petitioners’ lawyers, as well as those of the NIA, to go through the Nanavati Hospital’s medical report, PTI reported.
