A division bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Surendra Tavade heard the plea last week argued by lawyer Gayatri Singh, representing Bhelke.(File) Over a year after the death of 37-year-old Kanchan Nanavare, booked by the Maharashtra ATS in connection with a Maoist case, her husband has approached the Bombay High Court seeking a fresh judicial inquiry, stating her death was caused due to negligence by jail authorities and lack of proper medical care. The petition filed by her husband and co-accused Arun Bhelke states that the then jail superintendent of Yerwada jail had signed a consent form for a “risky” medical surgery to be conducted on Nanavare without informing him.
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A division bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Surendra Tavade heard the plea last week argued by lawyer Gayatri Singh, representing Bhelke. The court has issued notice to the Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) and the Jail superintendent of Yerwada Central
Prison in the regard and is likely to hear the matter later this month.
Nanavare was an undertrial lodged in the Yerwada women’s prison after being arrested by the ATS in 2014 on charges of being a member of CPI (Maoist) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code related to cheating and forgery after it was claimed that a fake Aadhaar card was found on her during a search.
She was at the jail since September 26, 2014 till her death on January 24, 2021. Nanavare was suffering from congenital heart disease and had undergone two heart surgeries in 1996 and 2013.
The petition states that she continued to face various medical issues during her incarceration and died an unnatural and untimely death at Sassoon Hospital after a high-risk emergency brain surgery was performed on her on January 16, 2021.
Bhelke, in the petition filed through his lawyer Parth Shah, has said that the surgery was done without following protocols and without him being informed about it or his consent being sought. Prison officials had informed Nanavare’s sister about her deteriorating health only after the surgery, when she was already in a critical condition, the counsel added.
Authorities later told her lawyers that she had developed a blood clot and had undergone an emergency surgery, even as notes from the cardiologist that are part of the medical record show that the surgery had a very high cardiac risk given her medical history, the plea states.
The petition states that the then Yerwada jail superintendent had signed a standard proforma/format letter, giving consent for Nanavare’s procedure, which read “in the interest of saving the life of the prisoner as his/her near relatives are not available for giving consent”.
“Respondent No. 3 not only wrongly, illegally and without any authorization gave consent for the surgery, he also did not bother to inform the Petitioner of his wife undergoing an emergency surgery, which had a risk of ‘death on table’ even though he was aware that the Petitioner (Bhelke) was lodged in the very same prison,” the petition states. It adds that even though there was a hearing before the trial court two days after the surgery, the jail authorities did not inform the court about it.
Later, when Bhelke sought permission to visit his wife, he was taken to the hospital on January 23, 2021. The petition states that even there, he was not informed about the surgery though medical records show that jail authorities were informed by the doctors that she had
faced a cardiac failure and her prognosis was poor. “…the conduct of the Respondents was so barbaric and inhuman, that not a single person even cared to inform the Petitioner that on 23rd January 2021, when he was visiting his wife in the hospital, she was already in cardiac failure, and this was in all probability, the last time he was seeing her alive,” the petition states.
Apart from this, the petition also states that Nanavare’s death was caused due to negligence and not being given timely medical care.
It says that there was no in-house monitoring of her medical condition, dietary needs and living conditions despite her medical history and the risk. From 2016 to 2019, she remained confined to an isolated barrack where her health deteriorated progressively. It also claims that her bail pleas on medical grounds were rejected as complete medical records were not submitted to the courts and it was claimed that she was stable and undergoing treatment. It has also been alleged that she was not moved to a super-speciality hospital despite requiring medical care that was not available at Sassoon Hospital. By 2020, Nanavare’s body capacity had reduced to 40 per cent, one of her kidneys had failed, she was “practically immobile” due to swelling in her legs but she was still not considered for interim relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, the petition states. It also points out “gross inadequacy” of medical staff in jails, adding that human rights violations, specifically denial of proper medical care to prisoners, go unnoticed.
The petition seeks disclosure of complete medical records of Nanavare, a judicial inquiry as per guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission, guidelines for treatment of seriously ill prisoners and compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the alleged negligence.
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