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Cancer patient ‘Maoist’ Uppuganti asked to seek bail, shifting to hospice
The Bombay high court was informed that Uppuganti had reached stage four of breast cancer and hence sought shifting to a hospice for palliative care during her final days
The Bombay high court on Thursday asked Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti, who is suffering from stage 4 of breast cancer, to amend her petition to include bail as final relief and transfer from prison to a palliative care hospice to spend her final days as an interim relief.
Uppuganti, who was arrested in 2019 along with her husband for alleged role in the death of 15 policemen and a civilian in the Gadchiroli Maoist attack, is terminally ill with breast cancer and is taken to Tata Memorial hospital for treatment every alternate day from Byculla prison. However, she has sought shifting to a palliative hospice claiming the facilities at Byculla Women’s prison were not conducive for her care.
The division bench of justice S S Shinde and justice N J Jamadar, while hearing Uppuganti’s petition, was informed by advocates Dr Yug Choudhry and Payoshi Roy that the alleged leader of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and underwent chemotherapy for the same. However, after her arrest in 2019, she had to miss her therapy and the cancer spread in her body.
The court was further informed that Uppuganti had reached stage four of the cancer and was suffering from multiple skeletal and lung metastases (secondary malignant growths) and hence sought shifting to a hospice for palliative care during her final days.
The petition further submitted that the Byculla prison, where Uppuganti was presently housed, did not have proper facilities for a patient like her, as she had to sleep on the floor in packed cells and was not even provided hot water, which was having an adverse effect on her health.
Public prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde opposed the petition saying that Uppuganti was being taken to the TATA Memorial Care Centre every alternate day as per her doctors’ advice and was able to move around the prison.
After hearing the submissions, the bench sought to know why Uppuganti had not applied for bail along with her plea for being shifted to a hospice. “There is no prayer for bail, even though we come to a conclusion that she needs medical care, how can we release her since there is no bail application. You could have applied for bail with the alternative of palliative care,” observed the bench.
In response, Roy submitted that the accused did not have anyone except her husband, who was being held at Arthur Road prison, and since all her assets and belongings had been seized, she had nowhere to go even if she was given bail. Further, there was no one to take care of bail formalities and hence she only sought shifting to a hospice.
The court then asked the lawyer to amend the petition to include a prayer for bail or at least include a submission on why bail was not sought for with the grounds that were orally presented before the court.
In the meantime, the court directed the prison authorities to take Uppuganti to TATA memorial as per her fixed schedule and then inform the court about her condition.
