Elgar Parishad case: HC asks NIA to verify Varavara Rao’s claim of free medical treatment in Hyderabad

The Bombay high court has asked the National Investigation Agency to verify the claims of Elgar Parishad case accused P Varavara Rao that he can get cataract surgery done free-of-cost in Hyderabad. Rao had filed an application seeking permission to travel to Hyderabad for three months for the surgery.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to verify the claims of Elgar Parishad case accused P Varavara Rao that he can get cataract surgery done free-of-cost in Hyderabad.

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The directions were issued in an application filed by Rao, seeking permission to travel to Hyderabad for three months for cataract surgery.

The single judge bench of justice Amit Borkar, while hearing the application, was informed by advocate R Sathyanarayanan for Rao that the octogenarian was having cataract in both his eyes and suffered from various other ailments.

The bench was informed that as Rao was a pensioner, the Telangana government was offering free medical treatment of up to ₹2 lakh to pensioners and he wished to avail the benefit.

The advocate informed the bench that the special court had failed to consider the ground on which he had sought permission to travel and hence the application.

In his application Rao had contended that there were doctors in his family, and they could take better care of him. The application stated that after he had narrated his experience in government hospitals in Mumbai, the HC had granted him temporary medical bail in 2021.

Later, the Supreme Court granted him regular bail, but he has been restrained from leaving Mumbai without the explicit permission of the court.