Seek bail, high court tells ill Maoist leader

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday asked Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti to amend her petition to include bail as a final relief and directions to transfer her from prison to a palliative care hospice as an interim relief in her petition. Uppuganti, who was arrested in 2019 along with her husband for allegedly being responsible for the death of 15 policemen and a civilian in the Gadchiroli Maoist attack, is terminally ill with breast cancer and is being taken to Tata Memorial Hospital for treatment every alternate day. However, as facilities in Byculla women’s prison were not conducive, she sought to be shifted to a palliative hospice from where she could be taken for her treatment.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar was informed by advocates Dr Yug Choudhry and Payoshi Roy that the alleged leader of banned CPI (Maoist) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and has been undergoing chemotherapy. However, after her arrest in 2019 she missed her therapy and the cancer spread. The court was further informed that Uppuganti had reached stage four of cancer and was suffering from multiple skeletal and lung metastases, and hence sought to be shifted to a hospice for palliative care during her final days.

It was further submitted that the Byculla prison, where Uppuganti is lodged, did not have proper facilities and she had to sleep on the floor in packed cells, and these were having an adverse effect on her health.

Public prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde opposed the plea saying Uggupanti was being taken to Tata Memorial Hospital every alternate day as directed by her doctors there. Shinde said the prison medical doctor had stated that Uppuganti was able to move around the prison and was being taken to the hospital regularly.

After hearing the submissions, the bench sought to know why Uppuganti had not applied for bail along with her plea.

In response, Roy said the accused did not have anyone except her husband who was being held at Arthur Road prison and all her assets and belongings had been seized, hence, even if she got bail she had nowhere to go. Further there was no one to take care of the bail formalities, hence, she only sought shifting to a hospice.

The court then asked the lawyer to amend the petition to include a prayer for bail and if not bail, then at least include why bail was not sought mentioning the grounds that were orally submitted to the court.