The condition of jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is stable after he was shifted to the J J Hospital in Mumbai, a senior hospital official said on Tuesday.
Rao, 80, lodged in the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, was shifted to the government-run hospital in south Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of giddiness.
According to Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of JJ Hospital, Rao has been admitted to the neurology department after he was brought to the medical facility from the jail on Monday night.
He is stable now and recuperating in the hospital, but it will take time to evaluate all his health parameters, said Mankeshwar.
Rao's family members along with several writers and activists had asked the Maharashtra government to immediately shift him to hospital for treatment, citing his deteriorating health condition.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and minister Jitendra Awhad had also demanded that Rao be shifted to hospital.
Additional Director General (Prisons) Sunil Ramanandan said, "He has neurological problem...will discuss his condition with doctors and they will take the final call. It's not yet clear when he is going to be shifted to the Taloja jail or any other prison."
The activist's family members have claimed he is unwell since sometime.
Rao's family members on Sunday sought the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care and claimed that when the veteran activist, who hails from Telangana, contacted them last week, he was in a 'delirious state and hallucinating'.
Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special National Investigation Agency court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.
In a tweet, Awhad had said, "We are extremely worried about Varvara Rao's health condition."
'His possession is under Home Ministry of Central Government and not under the Maharashtra Government. We appeal to the Central Government to urgently shift him to a hospital,' Awhad had tweeted, tagging Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh.
On Monday, Rao filed two petitions in the Bombay high court, seeking temporary bail owing to his deteriorating health and a direction to the jail authorities to produce his medical records and admit him to a state-run or private hospital.
Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the NIA in January this year.
The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.
The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.
