HC rejects Bhujbal’s bail plea, says no medical treatment required now

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court rejected former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s plea for bail on medical grounds. Bhujbal was arrested by the Enforcement

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court rejected former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal’s plea for bail on medical grounds. Bhujbal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March this year on charges of money laundering.

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Justice PN Deshmukh, who was presiding over his plea in HC, refused to grant any relief saying that Bhujbal had “failed to prove” that he was in need of “urgent medical treatment.”

Bhujbal, who is currently in judicial custody at Arthur Road jail, had approached the HC in May this year after a special PMLA court rejected his bail plea. He had sought bail on medical grounds claiming that he was suffering from countless chronic ailments that had put him in a “high-risk zone” and thus, he be allowed to visit a private hospital of his choice.

Justice Deshmukh said that as per his own plea, Bhujbal had undergone an angioplasty 13 years ago and he had been taking medication for his cardiac problem as well as for various other chronic and age-related ailments for decades. Besides, there was no reason to doubt the medical report of a panel of doctors from the JJ hospital certifying that he was “clinically stable” and that he had been provided required medical care while in jail. Thus, there was no urgency now to consult a private doctor or a private hospital, he said.

Justice Deshmukh however, issued a direction to the Arthur Road jail authorities to “provide medical aid to Bhujbal as and when required.”

On Tuesday, Bhujbal had argued that the medical report produced in court to suggest that he was “clinically stable” was erroneous could not be his since it bore the wrong date of birth. The report, Bhujbal’s counsel had argued, was also dated to August 2008, while the doctors at JJ had conducted the medical tests on Bhujbal in May this year. However, the counsels for ED told the court on Thursday that the report belonged to Bhujbal and the errors in the dates were because of faulty software at JJ hospital.