In a relief for Telugu poet Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, the Bombay High Court on Monday permitted him to travel to Hyderabad for a week to undergo cataract surgery.
A division bench headed by Justice Ajey Gadkari said once Rao is back to Mumbai after surgery of his one eye, he can approach the trial court seeking permission to travel back for surgery on the second eye.
For the first surgery, the court also asked Rao to travel within a week from the day when the order copy is made available to him.
Rao was arrested in the case in 2018 and was granted temporary bail on medical grounds in March 2021 by the HC for a period of six months.
In August 2022, the Supreme Court granted him bail on medical grounds. One of the conditions in the order was that Rao cannot leave the jurisdiction of the special court under National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act in Mumbai without express permission of court.
In June this year, Rao moved HC seeking permission to travel to Hyderabad for the surgery. He claimed that his vision was deteriorating due to ripening of cataract.
His advocates R Satyanarayanan and Neeraj contended that surgery and post-operative care in Mumbai was expensive, whereas it was free in the state of Telangana for a pension holder. They sought permission to remain in Hyderabad for ten days.
Advocate Sandesh Patil appearing for the National Investigation Agency, opposed the request for ten days. His argument was that cataract surgery patients are discharged the same day.
The Court concluded that the requirement of surgery was not being disputed by the NIA.
