Panel seeks immediate release of Dr Saibaba

Ex-DU professor recently tested positive for Coronavirus

The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr GN Saibaba, who is serving life term in Nagpur Central jail and has tested positive for Coronavirus recently, has called for the immediate release of the former DU professor on humanitarian grounds.

It said he is currently suffering the infection’s symptoms of cold, high fever, throat infection, body ache, joint pain, shortness of breath, severe headache and muscle spasms.

In a press release, the committee said that he has also been suffering from various other serious ailments including a grave heart condi

tion, hypertension, kidney stones, brain cyst, pancreatic problems and attenuation of the shoulder and arm muscles and nerves resulting in partial paralysis, most of which developed in jail.

Given his many comorbidities, the COVID infection may prove fatal.The specific heart condition is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with left ventricular dysfunction, and as his oxygen levels drop further, as happens with

COVID, there will be an increased strain on the heart, increasing chances of cardiac arrest, the release read.

Dr. Saibaba needs two helpers to assist him with his daily needs. As he has tested positive, the jail has kept him in quarantine and the helpers, who are negative, are not available to help him, thus the professor is left completely helpless, the committee’s convenor Professor G Haragopal said in the statement.

Saibaba needs two helpers to assist him with his daily needs. As he has tested positive, the jail has kept him in quarantine and the helpers, who are negative, are not available to help him