'Varavara Rao is fully conscious & oriented'

Mumbai: Jailed poet-activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is "fully conscious and oriented", the Maharashtra government stated in a medical report submitted before the Bombay High Court.

However, on the submission of Rao's counsel Indira Jaising that the report "did not shed any light on Rao's neurological condition and the urinary tract infection he is said to have developed while at the Taloja prison", the HC directed the government to file a "complete report detailing the type of medical exam conducted through video conferencing, and all other findings".

Rao, 81, is currently lodged as an under-trial in the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

Rao had filed a bail application and a writ petition seeking he be shifted to Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai immediately, owing to his "diminishing neurological and physical health condition".

The high court will hear both pleas of Rao on Wednesday.

Jaising told a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Madhav Jamdar that the state

government's report was an "eyewash" as it is "silent on Rao's dementia".