Counsel of UAPA accused Atiqur Rahman to request Court to direct for immediate arrangements for bypass surgery

Mathura: Considering the deteriorating health condition of undertrial PFI activist Atiqur Rahman in jail, a request will be made to the court on Monday to direct authorities to make immediate arrangements for his bypass surgery, his counsel said.

Rahman along with Popular Front of India (PFI) activists Aalam and Masood, and Delhi-based Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan was arrested while going to a Hathras village to meet the family members of a Dalit woman who had died after being gang-raped last year.

They have been booked on charges of sedition and terrorism.

"As per Sections 417 and 456 of the Uttar Pradesh Jail Manual, it is the duty of the superintendent of a jail to take care of the health of an undertrial prisoner," Rahman's counsel advocate Madhuban Datt Chaturvedi said on Sunday.

He alleged that in this case, the set procedure is not being followed even after the order of a special court in Lucknow, dated September 23, which had taken note of the seriously deteriorating health of PFI activist Rahman.

"The applicant is a patient of severe aortic regurgitation (AR), meaning the destruction of the aortic wall, and is a known pre-condition of cardiac arrest. Hence, the applicant is referred to the AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in New Delhi," the order of PMLA court Lucknow had said.

The court order of September 23 was implemented after a fortnight -- on October 8 -- when Rahman was sent to AIIMS.

"The government should make immediate arrangements for the surgery of my son-in-law Atiqur Rahman, as AIIMS doctors have expressed 60 per cent danger to his life," the PFI activist's father-in-law Shekhavat Khan said, adding that submission of 10 units of blood and Rs 2 lakh, according to AIIMS authorities, is are pre-conditions for the bypass operation.

He said that his son-in-law, who was earlier under treatment at AIIMS, was advised surgery last year, but it could not materialise as he was sent to jail.

Khan said that according to instructions of AIIMS, it was then decided to submit the required money for surgery on November 15 last year.

However, the planning for his earlier surgery failed, as he was arrested on October 5 last year by personnel of the Mant police station in Mathura district and has not been bailed out since then, even after his failing health, he said.

Father of two children, undertrial Rahman is a PhD scholar at the Chaudhary Charan Singh University Meerut, Khan said.

Jail Superintendent Brajesh Kumar said he will send a letter to the government on Monday for releasing funds for the surgery of the PFI activist.

Doctors had recommended heart surgery prior to his being lodged in the jail, he said.

However, then nothing was done by the family members, the official said.

Kept in the jail hospital under observation, the undertrial, according to instructions of doctors, would be taken to AIIMS within a fortnight, Kumar said.