COIMBATORE: The Madras High Court on Friday ordered the Coimbatore Central Prison authorities to shift a convict in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blast case, I Abuthakir, to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), in response to a petition from a private hospital here, where he is now admitted.
The hospital, where Abuthakir is being treated since 2012, said that his treatment was over and that he need not stay there.
After his conviction in 2007, Abuthakir was lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison in 2008, but he has actually been in the prison only for 333 days, sources said. The rest of the time, he has been out of prison on medical grounds.
In 2012, Abuthakir’s brother Sikandar Basha filed a writ petition seeking his admission to the private hospital for kidney transplantation. Based on it, on December 3, 2012, the High Court ordered that Abuthakir be shifted to a private hospital to undergo kidney transplantation. “But none of his relatives came forward to donate a kidney,” a doctor associated with the private hospital told Express. “We have treated him for all other complications that he had,” he added.
According to the hospital’s affidavit in the High Court, Abuthakir has been treated for renal failure, systemic hypertension, atrial fibrillation and posterior cortical cataract.
“Abuthakir is completely all right and has only to undergo dialysis twice a week. He need not be in the hospital as an inpatient. Moreover, the facility is available at the CMCH,” the doctor said, adding, “Even after writing several letters to the Prison department, they have not responded us”.
Asked about this, Coimbatore Central Prison Superintendent M Senthil Kumar refused to respond, saying that a case in this regard was pending before the court. In 2016, the hospital had filed a civil miscellaneous petition, as a respondent in the writ petition filed in 2012 by Abuthakir’s brother. The case was being heard by the High Court and on July 4, the court ordered the Prison Department to provide an explanation for not shifting the patient to a government hospital.
On Friday, a High Court bench comprising Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao and Justice M Dhandapani passed an interim order directing the Prison department to shift Abuthakir to the CMCH from the private hospital. The court also asked the private hospital to submit the pending invoices and posted the case for further hearing to July 20.