Prison officials said Narote was given adequate medical care and was shifted to the hospital.PANDU NAROTE, who was convicted along with former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for Maoist links, died on Thursday after contracting swine flu. He was imprisoned at the Nagpur Central Jail.
As per prison officials, the 33-year-old had high fever on August 20 and was subsequently detected with swine flu. Later, he was admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC) in Nagpur where his condition kept deteriorating. He passed away at 5.30pm. His family had written to the Nagpur jail superintendent on Thursday, before his death, stating that they were not informed about his medical condition and the jail authorities would be responsible should something happen to him.
Prison officials said Narote was given adequate medical care and was shifted to the hospital.
Narote was arrested from Gadchiroli in August 2013 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 along with Saibaba and four others under sections of UAPA.
Subscriber Only Stories
Narote’s lawyer Akash Sorde said the family or lawyers were not informed about his condition and that they learnt about it through news reports. The family approached the jail authorities for information and visited GMC Hospital but were not allowed to meet Narote, he said. Narote’s lawyers had also approached the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday seeking urgent medical care for him, stating that he was admitted at the jail hospital without access to specialised care.
He was shifted to GMC two days ago and continued to remain admitted there despite a referral by the authorities there that swine flu could not be treated at the hospital and sought for him to be shifted to another facility, his lawyer said.