The Bombay High Court bench of Justices Sambhaji Shinde and Nijamoodin Jamadar was on Thursday informed that arrested activist Gautam Navlakha will be taken to Navi Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Centre, to examine the lump in his chest.
This comes on a plea filed by Navlakha (70) seeking to be kept in house arrest instead of continuing his custody in the Taloja jail. He sought his house arrest till the trial in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case is concluded.
During the hearing, advocate Yug Chaudhary for Navlakha pointed out that his client developed a lump in his chest in March 2021. But the prison authorities haven't taken any decision yet on his multiple requests to get it examined since he is fearing it would be malignant (cancerous).
Chaudhary urged the judges to allow his client to be examined at city's Jaslok hospital, where Navlakha's sister is a nurse.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh for the NIA opposed the request. He said Navlakha could be instead examined at any government hospital or the Tata Memorial hospital at Kharghar.
Agreeing with the ASG's submission, Chaudhary said that they weren't insisting on any particular hospital. But claimed vindictiveness on part of the NIA despite the fact that Navlakha was all ready to pay for the tests.
"I don't know what is the problem here. Why one has to beg for every small thing. My client was denied even a chair," Chaudhary submitted.
Having heard the contentions, the bench sought to know if Chaudhary still wished to get his client examined at the Jaslok hospital. "If you desire so, you can make a separate application for that," the court said.
However, Chaudhary said that as of now the priority was to thoroughly examine the lump in his chest and thus they were okay to get it tested at Tata Memorial Centre.
At this, state prosecutor told the bench that Navlakha would be taken to the hospital on Friday morning.
The matter would be next heard on September 27.
