The Bombay High Court on Thursday extended the date of surrender of Elgar Parishad case accused Varavara Rao till December 2. The court also directed the Maharashtra government to conduct a medical examination of Rao to decide whether his medical bail can be extended.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Varavara Rao, told a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal that his client had recently undergone surgery for acute appendicitis and hernia and was discharged from the hospital on November 16. He said that Rao’s health had deteriorated and hence he should not be sent back to jail.
Special counsel Sandesh Patil, appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), told the court that since Varavara Rao was seeking extension on medical bail, he had to attend a government facility like JJ Hospital to determine his health condition. Should get tested.
Anand Grover objected and said that the health status report of Varavara Rao was from a reputed private hospital which should be relied upon.
The court said the bench, which had granted medical bail to Varavara Rao, took the decision on the basis of the report of a private hospital. In light of this, the judges also directed the Maharashtra government to get Varavara Rao examined from the same private hospital.
The private hospital has been directed to present the report in the court by November 29.
Through the present petition, Varavara Rao has also sought modification of the bail conditions to allow him to stay at his home in Hyderabad instead of staying in Mumbai.
The old man was earlier granted temporary conditional bail on February 22 this year for a period of six months. One of the many conditions imposed on him was to remain under the jurisdiction of the special NIA court in Mumbai.
However, Justice Jamdar said that there should be a fresh petition with sound grounds seeking relief for change of location. He clarified that the clause sought to be amended was granted by another bench and could not be changed by this bench.
“There should be a new petition. This order was passed by the previous bench. Amending that order, we cannot,” Justice Jamdar said.
The bench gave time to Varavara Rao to file a fresh petition at the earliest and extended the date of his surrender till December 2.
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