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Elgar Parishad case: P Varavara Rao hallucinating we are waiting for him outside jail, claims family of Telugu poet
Stating that Veteran Telugu poet P Varavara Rao’s health was “deteriorating” and he was “hallucinating”, his family and intellectuals on Sunday sought medical help
Stating that Veteran Telugu poet P Varavara Rao’s health was “deteriorating” and he was “hallucinating”, his family and intellectuals on Sunday sought medical help for him.
Rao, 81, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case, is currently lodged in Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai. He had moved a plea for interim bail on May 15 amid the spread of Covid-19 in Mumbai jails.
While the plea was still pending, Rao’s health condition deteriorated. On May 28, Rao was taken to JJ hospital after he fell unconscious in jail and was discharged after two days.
In a conference organised through a digital platform on Sunday, Rao’s family –wife P Hemalatha and daughters P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana – alleged he was discharged in haste even when he had not recovered fully, a day before his plea for interim bail was scheduled for hearing.
“It was done only to facilitate the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to oppose his bail plea before the special NIA court,” the family alleged. The plea was rejected on June 26, after which Rao has approached the high court for relief. The family claimed that Rao was hallucinating, primarily because of imbalance of electrolytes in his body.
The family claimed they received a call from Rao from jail on Saturday evening, wherein Rao spoke about his father’s funeral. In the conference family clarified that Rao’s father had passed away when he was three.
They claimed this indicated Rao was hallucinating. The family alleged that since his discharge from hospital, they have spoken to him four times and he has since been in a state of confusion. Rao’s daughters claimed the telephonic conversation in June was better, but this month’s two calls have been worrisome.
The family claimed he needs immediate medical attention. “He did not answer direct questions on his health and went into a kind of delirious and hallucinated talk about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago, respectively. Then his co-accused companion took the phone from him and informed us that he is not able to walk, go to toilet and brush his teeth on his own. We were also told that he is always hallucinating that we, family members, were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released,” the family claimed.
The family said they will approach the Bombay high court for urgent relief to shift him to a multispecialty hospital.
“His life is the topmost concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life...” they said.
Following the plea, five prominent intellectuals – Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Devaki Jain, Maja Daruwala and Satish Deshpande – have appealed to Government of Maharashtra and NIA to transfer Rao to JJ Hospital. Previously, in 2018, the same group had also approached the Supreme Court against the arrest of all activists in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
The statement read: “Rao poses no flight risk and has voluntarily submitted to all investigations for the past 22 months. There is no reason in law or conscience to hold him in circumstances that increase risk to his fragile health....To knowingly risk the life of a person in state custody by refusing proper medical treatment would amount to a form of encounter, an extra-legal punishment which the State institutions are duty-bound to forego.”
