Jailed poet Varavara Rao shifted to hospital after health deteriorates

Jailed Telugu poet and litterateur Varavara Rao, was shifted to the state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai on Monday (July 13) after his health deteriorated.

Eighty one-year-old Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case has been in prison since 2018. He is currently lodged in Taloja Jail in Mumbai.

On Sunday, Rao’s family including his wife and daughters in a press conference had said that his health condition is deteriorating ever since he was shifted to state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai on May 28 in an unconscious condition. They said that there was no improvement in his health after he was discharged from the hospital three days later.

His wife said, during phone calls on Saturday (July 11), Rao sounded delirious and was in a “hallucinating state.” She said his co-accused in the case told her that Rao was unable to walk by himself.

“We were also told he is always hallucinating that the family members were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released,” NDTV quoted her as saying.

They had demanded that Rao be shifted to a hospital from the jail.

Rao last week had moved the Bombay High Court against an order of the special NIA court rejection his interim bail plea on medical grounds. The high court had issued notices to NIA and the Maharashtra government seeking their response on the plea by July 17.