Below is a letter from Saibaba's wife Vasantha on Nagpur High Court's outrageous decision to deny Saibaba bail. Below that is a letter that Saibaba sent earlier this month detailing his present condition. Please share these widely.

Professor, Human rights activist, 90% disabled and suffering from 19 high health risks couldn’t able to get bail on health grounds

March 25, 2019

With great disappointment and unfathomable pain, I inform all democratic forces and the academic community that, today, the Nagpur High Court bench has rejected the bail application of my husband, Dr. G N Saibaba, Delhi University English professor, who has been incarcerated in the Anda Cell for the past two years.

Saibaba is a 90 percent physically disabled, wheelchair bound person, who has been suffering from 19 ailments, some of them are life threatening and require immediate medical intervention. When he was convicted in a concocted criminal case two years ago, he was in an intensive care unit undergoing treatment. However, as a law-obeying citizen, he surrendered before the court, and was shifted to the high security prison. Since then, his health has been deteriorating because of the lack of proper diagnosis and treatment. The state has not provided him any assistance to take care of his basic daily needs, even though his jail cell is not conducive for a disabled person like Saibaba. Not only that every time they bring him to the hospital, the police, who are not professionals in dealing with disabled people, toss him in and out of the wheelchair as a piece of luggage, which has caused the total damage of his left hand. Currently, because of his deteriorating health, he is experiencing a partial paralysis of his body, as he could not move his body even to the bare minimum as he used to do previously. This is a gross violation of his human rights, dignity, and a grave threat to his life.

Every time before the court hearing, the police perform a big drama as if they are seriously attempting to provide treatment for Saibaba. But, in reality, they always bring him to hospitals, which have no infrastructural and personnel capacities either to properly diagnose or treat his illnesses. The output of this drama is yet another fabricated police summary report that explains to the court that Saibaba has been getting proper treatment and there is no danger for his life.

In reality, Saibaba is already half-dead, because several vital organs in his body (pancreas, prostate, gallbladder, urinary bladder, muscular system, nervous system and other) have reached to ill functioning. As a result, he has been experiencing excruciating life in the Anda Cell, Nagpur Central Prison. If the same situation continues any further, it is very clear that there is no chance for him to survive longer.

By rejecting Saibaba’s bail for medical treatment, I believe that the state is planning for his gradual but painful death in the prison. But, I would like to bring to the notice of the people of this country and the global community that by this bail rejection, Saibaba’s fundamental right to live has been curtailed.

Saibaba’s life has been endangered just because of his relentless fight for the rights of the oppressed castes, classes, and nationalities. I once again appeal to all democratic institutions, civil and human rights organizations, students, teachers, and writers to raise your voice against the gross human rights violation meted out to Saibaba, and demand for his release immediately.

Thank you!

Vasantha Kumari
Delhi

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My Present Health Condition: An Update 19/03/2019

With the fast deteriorating health condition and in the context of the development of complexities, the prison’s Chief Medical Officer in consultation with the doctors of GMCH and the Dean of the Government hospital decided to send me to the Departments of Cardiology, Neurology and Neurosurgery immediately. Unfortunately, there are no adequate faculties and methods of conducting the required investigations available at Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH), and GMCH Super specialties hospital, Nagpur. These Departments have already recorded non-availability of the facilities in the medical records earlier in 2014 and 2018. As there is no alternative here, I will be sent to these departments next week for immediate and emergency treatment whenever possible. I have been experiencing unbearable pain in my damaged muscles of the left hand, frequent and complete blackouts, round the clock dizziness and heavy pressure in my brain, and sleeplessness due to the shooting pain. The drugs have turned ineffective. Even sedatives have stopped working on me now. The prison doctors have informed me that they have held discussions with the doctors of the Departments of Physiotherapy (PT), Occupational Therapy (OT) and Orthopedics. Now they have decided to send me for different therapies daily and regularly because of my critical condition. It is too late.

Next week I will be also sent to the Department of Plastic Surgery to evaluate for muscle/tendon transfer surgery and nerve transfer surgery— none of which are available at GMCH-SSH. It is only a formality to send me.

It is pertinent to mention one important thing here. Though they have decided to send me to the above six departments now after repeated recommendations for the same in the past two years, it is not possible in practical terms to avail any minimum medical treatment because of the following reasons:

1. Adequate and proper treatment facilities are not available at GMCH-SSH; they are available only in Hyderabad + Delhi.
2. Police escort personnel are not available to take me regularly and daily to the hospital; it is a perennial problem.
3. I am not in a position to travel everyday or even for a single day. My physical condition is now impossible for traveling.
4. These Departments do not have facilities to admit me in the hospital (unless I agree for a surgery for which I have no courage to undergo in an ill-equipped hospital— for the removal of the gallbladder.) These Departments treat only outpatients unlike hospitals in Hyderabad and Delhi.
5. Everyday, my family members are required to be present in the hospital to handle my body, which is not possible.

As my condition has worsened, the escort police personnel now have to literary lift me in their hands to shift me to the vehicle, to the wheelchair, and to the hospital bed every time. They are untrained to do this and reluctant fearing inadvertent wrong handling resulting in further damage. Similarly, the two helpers in my cell have turned increasingly reluctant to continue as my position has been developing increasingly vulnerable for them to handle. They are no longer in a position to handle me.

I am half-dead by now. With the temperatures of Nagpur rising to 40 degrees Celsius even in early March, my condition is impossible to be controlled. All the ailments have gotten aggravated. Urinary and Prostate problems, pancreatitis an Syncope have reached uncontrollable levels. I have no courage to travel to the hospital on daily basis. Even if I go somehow, there is only temporary and cosmetic treatment without any real answers to my ailments. Kindly represent all these aspects mentioned here and in my 9th March letter as examples to your comprehensive document placed before the Hon’ble Court after 4th March 19 (after the change if the bench now.)

G.N. Saibaba
Anda Cell
Central Prison
Nagpur