Hyderabad
The health of poet and activist P Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, is deteriorating, his family members said on Sunday, seeking better medical aid for him.
The 81-year-old is lodged in the Taloja jail in Mumbai.
Rao’s wife, Hemalatha, and daughters, Sahaja, Anala and Pavana, told reporters that they were worried about his health following a phone call with him on Saturday.
“He appeared to be in a state of delirium and hallucination, as he was talking about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago respectively. His co-prisoner 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,” Hemalatha said.
She added that Rao’s co-prisoner also told the family that he needed immediate medical care. “The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage,” Hemalatha said.
{{/usCountry}}She added that Rao’s co-prisoner also told the family that he needed immediate medical care. “The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage,” Hemalatha said.
{{/usCountry}}She said that her husband’s health had been deteriorating ever since he was taken to JJ Hospital in Mumbai in an unconscious state on May 28. “Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health. The earlier two calls on June 24 and July 2 were also worrying with his weak and muffled voice, incoherent speech and abruptly jumping into Hindi, which was quite worrying,” she said.
“His life is the top most concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life. We demand the government to shift him to a better hospital or allow us to provide required medical care. We want to remind the government that it has no right to deny the right to life of any person, much less an undertrial prisoner,” the family members said.
In April, around 40 prominent writers wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting Rao’s release in the wake of outbreak of Covid-19. Several MPs, cutting across political lines, also wrote to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray with a request to provide medical care for Rao and to shift him to a hospital.