Former Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba on Saturday tested positive for COVID-19.
DIG Ramesh Kamble confirmed the development to The Hindu.
Mr. Kamble said, “Saibaba, along with two other convicts, has tested positive. Their samples have been sent to Government Medical College Nagpur for further tests. Saibaba does not have any symptoms but we will be carrying out all tests to decide if he needs to be admitted in the hospital.”
Advocate Aakash Sarode, representing Saibaba, said, “I will be going to the Hospital to see if I am allowed to meet Sai. I am told the doctors will be doing his CT scan.”
Saibaba’s wife Vasantha Kumari has been anxious about her husband contracting the virus. On July 15, 2020, Saibaba, 53, called her and told her that there was an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 inside Nagpur Central Prison and the virus had infected hundreds of prisoners, including convicts, undertrials and even the jail guards.
He had told her, “On July 8, 2020, all 20 prisoners of the anda cell underwent COVID-19 swab tests and one prisoner was found infected.
“The disease has reached very close to me”, the former professor told his wife and added it was only a “matter of time” before it reached his cell and that the officers who used to patrol the barracks had contracted COVID.
On October 22, 2020, Saibaba called off a planned hunger strike as he was not provided with any clothes, medicines and books for over a month.
He is 90% physically challenged and uses a wheelchair. He is lodged at an anda cell (solitary confinement) of Nagpur Central jail after being convicted for Maoist links in 2014.
Saibaba’s left hand is on the verge of failure and there is acute pain in both his hands. He has pancreatitis, high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, chronic back pain, immobility and sleeplessness.