Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to transfer alleged Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti from jail to a hospice (health facility) for palliative care on account of her terminal cancer.
Uppuganti, an accused in the 2019 Gadchiroli IED blast case, had filed a plea through senior counsel Yug Chaudhry and advocate Payoshi Roy, asking to be shifted to a hospice for palliative care so that she was "properly taken care of during her final days."
A bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar directed the state prison authorities to shift Uppuganti from the Byculla women's prison in Mumbai to a hospice by September 15.
The state's counsel, Sangeeta Shinde, however, had opposed Uppuganti's plea.
The state counsel told the High Court that Uppuganti was accused of a serious offence and was able to move on her own, and had been provided the help of two other inmates to take care of her in prison.
The government counsel said as per the advice of Uppuganti's doctors, the prison authorities were taking her to the Tata Memorial Centre, a cancer hospital in Mumbai, three times a week for treatment.
In its order on Thursday, the High Court, however, said though Uppuganti was accused of a serious offence and charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), refusing her palliative care would breach her fundamental right to protection of life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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