Bombay High Court asks ailing accused in naxal blast case to amend plea and seek bail

Bombay High Court. File pic

The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked an accused in the case related to a blast carried out by naxals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district in 2019 to amend her petition and seek bail.

Nirmala Uppuganti, the petitioner, has moved the court seeking that she be shifted from prison to a hospice as she is suffering from last-stage cancer.

The case pertains to the death of 15 security personnel and a civilian in a landmine blast near Jambhulkheda village in Gadchiroli district on May 1, 2019.

A bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar directed Uppuganti's counsel Payoshi Roy to amend the petition to seek bail as final relief and the shifting from the Byculla women's prison here to a palliative care hospice as an interim relief.

Uppuganti's plea, filed earlier this week through senior counsel Yug Chaudhry and advocate Roy, said she should be shifted to a hospice so that she was "properly taken care of during her final days."

Roy told the court on Thursday that Uppuganti has stage-four cancer which has spread to her lungs and other organs.

The state's counsel Sangeeta Shinde said prison authorities take Uppuganti to the TATA Memorial Care Centre in the city every alternate day for treatment as advised by the doctors there.

Also read: At least 13 Naxals killed in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli: DIG Sandip Patil

But Roy claimed that in prison she is kept in a crowded cell, has to sleep on the floor and does not have access to some necessary medical facilities.

The judges then asked how they could pass any order for release if she did not ask for bail.

Roy said that Uppuganti's husband, a co-accused, too was in judicial custody. She has no family outside the prison and no place to stay, hence she did not seek bail, the lawyer added.

The HC then asked Roy to amend the petition to include a prayer for bail, or at least state in the plea why bail was not sought.

It also directed prison authorities to continue to take Uppuganti to the TATA Memorial Hospital and inform the court about her medical condition at the next hearing later this month.

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