MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday extended the bail granted on health grounds to poet Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, till March 8.
It also sought to know if the conditions at the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai had improved.
A division bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap said if the conditions had not improved then the accused (Rao) would be exposed to more diseases if he was sent back there.
Rao was granted temporary medical bail by the high court in February 2021 for a period of six months.
The octogenarian later filed an application seeking extension of the bail, and subsequently another plea seeking permanent bail on the grounds of ill-health.
The high court has since September 2021 extended his time to surrender several times.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing Rao, submitted that the "attitude of the prosecution must change and their endeavour cannot be to keep an accused in the prison at the cost of his health" pending trial.
Rao's co-accused Father Stan Swamy, who was suffering from Parkinson's disease, died in hospital while his medical bail plea was pending, the lawyer pointed out.
"He (Swamy) would not have died had he not been put in prison. You (prosecution) put someone in a position that there is no going back. The attitude of the prosecution has to be that they should try their best to get the prisoner for trial. It should not be that whatever happens to him in prison is fine," he argued.
Justice Shukre then asked why Rao was granted bail only for six months, and whether the high court order was challenged by the parties.
"Because he is 82 years old, he may be drug resistant. In six months will the Taloja prison improve? He will be exposed to more diseases," the judge remarked.
A bench led by Justice S S Shinde, on February 22, 2021, while granting temporary relief to Rao, had observed that the hospital attached to the Taloja Central Prison and the jail ward of JJ Hospital were "ill-equipped and inadequate" to take care of Rao's health, and sending him back to the prison would "certainly endanger his life" and would "run the risk of deterioration of his health to the point of no return".
"With the kind of observations in the HC order, prima facie we do not see any scope of review (unless proved otherwise by prosecution). And this order has attained finality," Justice Shukre remarked.
The court will continue to hear the case on March 8.