Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to transfer alleged Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti, an accused in the 2019 Gadchiroli IED blast case, from prison to a hospice for palliative care on account of her terminal cancer. A bench of Justices S.S.Shinde and N. J. Jamadar directed the state prison authorities to shift Uppuganti from the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai to a hospice by September 15.
Uppuganti filed a plea in the high court earlier this month seeking that she be shifted from prison to a hospice as she is terminally ill with cancer. In her plea filed through senior counsel Yug Chaudhry and advocate Payoshi Roy, Uppuganti urged that she be shifted to a hospice for palliative care so that she was "properly taken care of during her final days". The state's counsel Sangeeta Shinde, however, had opposed Uppuganti's plea.
Shinde had told the high court that Uppuganti was accused of a serious offence. She had said that Uppuganti was able to move on her own and she had been provided with the help of two other inmates to take care of her in the prison. The government counsel further said that as per the advice of Uppuganti's doctors, the state prison authorities were taking her to the Tata Memorial cancer care hospital in the city three times a week for treatment.
On September 7, the HC bench had reserved its order on Uppuganti's plea, saying it would consider her request "from all angles" permissible under the law. It had been said at the time that the fundamental right to protection of life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution was applicable to everyone, including prisoners. Uppuganti is accused in the IED explosion attack case in Gadchiroli in the state on May 1, 2019, in which, 15 security personnel from the Gadchiroli Quick Response Team and one civilian were killed.
(PTI)
