Do Not Send Varavara Rao Back to Taloja Jail: Anand Grover Urges Bombay High Court

Even as Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital has finally said that the ailing 81- year-old Telugu poet - Varavara Rao – is fit for discharge, Senior Advocate Anand Grover urged the Bombay High Court on Tuesday to grant him bail on medical grounds as the Taloja Jail Hospital does not have the infrastructure to monitor his condition.

"The hospital (Nanavati) with medical experts has given the opinion he is fit for discharge. Can that be substituted?" a division bench headed by Justice SS Shinde asked. "The hospital says he is hemodynamically stable and fit to be discharged. But once discharged and shifted to Taloja hospital he will require close monitoring and medical attention. But Taloja Jail (in Navi Mumbai) does not have the infrastructure for that."

Grover argued that Rao's condition has progressively deteriorated in the prison hospital and he suffers from a series of aliments including hypertension, chronic kidney ailments and a neurological disorder. He narrated how Rao was unable to brush his teeth just 48 days after his discharge from the hospital and necessary tests to monitor his sodium levels were not conducted till his admission to Nanavati Hospital last month.

Referring to Rao's medical reports from JJ Hospital, Grover said that Rao's sodium levels are shown to be borderline, however, subsequent reports by St. George Hospital and Nanavati Hospital just days later showed drastically low sodium levels.

Grover submitted that, Rao, currently in Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital is being administered at least 20 medicines for serious ailments. The division bench then sought the list of medicines prescribed and adjourned the case for further arguments on Wednesday.

While Grover is arguing Rao's petition for bail on medical grounds, former ASG and senior advocate Indira Jaising said she would address the bench on Rao's wife's petition on Wednesday. P Hemalatha, through a separate petition, has sought a declaration that Rao's fundamental rights to health, dignity and life, and thereby his rights, under Article 21of the Constitution of India have been violated by prison officials.

Rao was arrested along with several other left-leaning civil rights activists in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case in August 2019, in which he has also been accused of having maoist links. Booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Rao has been in and out of hospital ever since his arrest.