The Bombay High Court in the case Dr. P. Varavara Rao v. National Investigation Agency and Anr observed and has granted octogenarian Telugu poet Varavara Rao permission to travel to Hyderabad for seven days in order to undergo cataract surgery in one of his eyes.
The bench comprising of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Shyam Chandak in the case observed and has asked the Rao to seek permission afresh from the trial court to undergo surgery for the other eye.
In the present case, Rao had approached High Court in November 2022 against the order of Special NIA’s court wherein it refused permission.
In the present case, the poet is facing allegations under the UAPA over alleged Maoist links. Thus, the Supreme Court granted him permanent medical bail but constrained him to stay within the limits of the city of Greater Mumbai on August 10, 2022.
However, the court granted him liberty to approach the concerned NIA court for permission to go to Hyderabad.
Further, he approached the Special Court for permission to travel to Hyderabad and stay for a period of 3 months. Thus, the Special court rejected the request of him, hence, the present criminal application.
The counsel, Advocate R Sathyanarayanan contended before the court that Rao was 83 years old and needed to get cataract surgery for which the appropriate place is Hyderabad.
As per the plea, the special Court gave two reasons for rejecting the bail – i) he can get the treatment in Mumbai and ii) arguments for discharge are going on in the main case.
It has also been contended in the application moved that if the Rao does not undergo surgery, he may suffer serious repercussions including impairment of vision. Thus, he can get the treatment in Hyderabad for free as he is the pensioner of the State Government of Telangana. Further, the application moved contended that his family members are doctors including his grand-daughter who is an ophthalmologist and can provide better care to him.
It has also been stated in the application that the Rao’s experience with government hospitals in Mumbai has been terrible and the private hospitals are too costly, therefore he cannot afford cataract operation in Mumbai and has to get it done in Hyderabad.
The counsel appearing for him seek permission for twenty days, ten for each eye. Thus, the counsel, Advocate Sandesh Patil for NIA objected and said he should be granted only three days.
The court in the case observed and has grated Rao seven days from the date of uploading of the order to travel to Hyderabad and get his surgery done
Therefore, the court stated that Rao would be required to submit details of his surgery to the NIA, all the other bail permissions would remain intact.
Facts of the case:
As per the application, till 10.10.2022, only one of the discharge applications was heard and there are 5 more discharge applications yet to be heard. Thus, after that the prosecution will also be heard and the charge sheet sheets runs into about 20,000 pages, there are several witness statements.
Further, Rao has not filed a discharge application and has no role to play, the application contended that rejecting permission to travel to Hyderabad on this ground would be sheer abuse of process.