INDIA: HC notice to Maha on jailed DU prof’s G N Saibaba dwindling health (Nagpur Today)

Nagpur, 10.06.15: Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State Home Department after an email drew the court’s attention to the deteriorating health of G N Saibaba, former Delhi University lecturer. He was arrested last year by Maharashtra police for alleged Maoist links and is confined to an “anda cell” in the Nagpur Central Prison.
An email sent to the Chief Justice on June 8 by Purnima Upadhyay of NGO Khoj with an “urgent request to save the life of Professor Saibaba” was converted into a suo motu public interest litigation.
Upadhyay referred to a news report which said Saibaba was 90 percent handicapped due to polio and need a pill each for a heart condition and blood pressure. It stated that after a year in jail and over six months in the anda cell, he has developed several ailments leaving only his right hand in working condition.
The news report said the health report submitted by Chief Medical Officer and the superintendent of the jail to a Gadchiroli court last month , wheel-chair bound Saibaba “is now a known case of systemic hypertension with ischemic heart disease” and also has kidney and gall-bladder stones. It quoted his advocate saying he faints daily due to heat in the anda cell.
A bench of CJ Mohit Shah and Justice Anil Menon also directed issue of notice to the jail’s CMO and superintendent and the police commissioner, Nagpur. The court has also sought the investigation papers and Saibaba’s health records at the next hearing on June 17.