HC asks AIIMS, police to treat suspected Maoist

The Delhi High Court Monday asked AIIMS and the city police to provide immediate treatment to a suspected Maoist prisoner, awaiting surgery for removal of a brain tumour and lying in a pitiable condition in a south Delhi police station for nearly two weeks now.

Chandan Deonath, with his right side partially paralysed and in judicial custody since Nov 27, 2007, was brought here from Saraikela prison in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur district earlier this month after doctors referred him to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for surgery.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru asked SHO of Hauz Khas police station, where Deonath is lying, and AIIMS to provide him treatment and posted the matter for Tuesday.

AIIMS has kept him on the waiting list, given the long queue the premier institute has for such surgeries and Deonath has to wait for his turn, which could take three months at the least.

But since there was no facility in the hospital to keep him admitted for a long time, he has been put up on the second floor verandah of Hauz Khas police station since Sep 9.

Deonath was initially treated at Ranchi Institute of Medical Sciences and was diagnosed with a brain tumour and advised urgent surgery. The hospital in Ranchi referred him to AIIMS on Aug 28.

Hailing from Hoogly, West Bengal, Deonath was arrested by Jharkhand Police in 2007 and was booked under sedition charges on suspicion of being a Maoist. He is also awaiting completion of trial.