The Bombay High Court has directed state-run JJ Hospital here to provide HDIL promoter Rakesh Wadhawan, arrested in the multi-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) bank fraud case, a copy of all his medical records.
A division bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and VG Bisht, on Friday, also directed a special court set under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to hear and decide before August 19 an application filed before it by Wadhawan seeking to be shifted to a private hospital for medical treatment.
In his petition filed before HC, Wadhawan, who is presently lodged at the Arthur Road prison in central Mumbai, sought to be shifted to hospitals like Lilavati, Nanavati or Criticare.
Wadhawan's counsel Amit Desai along with advocate Subir Kumar told the court that he was suffering from hypertension, diabetes, pulmonary disorder, insomnia, chronic UTI and a respiratory disorder.
Desai alleged the jail authorities have been referring Wadhawan to government hospitals, but was not furnishing him the medical reports.
"We are seeking for Wadhawan to be shifted to a private hospital so that his life can be saved," Desai argued.
The court was informed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) lawyer Hiten Venegavkar that a similar application had been filed by the accused in the sessions court.
Additional public prosecutor Prajakta Shinde told the court that Wadhawan only requires to undergo endoscopy procedure, which can be done at the civic-run KEM hospital.
She argued that all other health parameters of Wadhawan were in order and that he is not required to be shifted to any private hospital for treatment.
"We direct the JJ Hospital to furnish all the medical records of the petitioner (Wadhawan) showing his health status and the treatment given so far to the petitioner without fail," the court directed.
The high court also said the state and the ED could submit the medical records of the petitioner before the sessions court.
The alleged fraud at PMC Bank came to light in September 2019 after the Reserve Bank detected that the bank had allegedly created fictitious accounts to hide over Rs 4,355 crore of loans extended to almost-bankrupt Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd.
According to the RBI, the PMC bank had masked problematic 44 loan accounts, including HDIL loan accounts, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members.
The city police's economic offence wing and the ED had registered offences against senior bank officials and HDIL promoters RakeshWadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan.
