New Delhi: A six-week-old letter from Kobad Ghandy, the 71-year-old Maoist leader being held in a Jharkhand prison, has reached his friends in Delhi saying his health problems are "very serious" and "can lead to death".
Ghandy, alleged to be a politburo member of the banned CPI (Maoist), wrote the letter to his prison superintendent on February 5 but could not reach him. He was only recently able to smuggle it out to his friends here, sources said.
Ghandy, held in various jails across the country since his arrest in Delhi in 2009, says his blood pressure has risen to 160/110 despite medication, and that arthritis and a slipped disc have made it difficult for him to walk.
"But the most acute problem is of the prostate/kidney/urinary which has become very serious.... Though the Jharkhand police have been very kind and during police custody even took me to the Bokaro General Hospital for prostate/kidney examination.... The doctor suggested a number of tests including ultrasound and for prostate cancer," the letter says.
"Though I have repeatedly reminded the Tenughat sub-jail authorities to follow up, nothing has happened though over a month has passed. Meanwhile, since the last 3-4 nights the problem has intensified, resulting in my having to pass urine 12-15 times (earlier 5-6 times) at nights."
The letter adds: "I am 71... if anything serious happened to my health, who will be responsible? All these problems (particularly urine) are chronic and if not dealt with urgently can lead to death. I request urgent action before it is too late."
Ghandy's lawyer Rohit Thakur told The Telegraph: "There's no doctor in the Tenughat sub-jail and my client can get treatment only if shifted to a proper hospital. He is denied even a mosquito net. He could not get this letter to the superintendent, who is based in Bokaro, so he has sent it to friends to post it directly to officials in Bokaro."
Ghandy was being treated for cancer in Delhi when he was arrested nine years ago on the charge of establishing a party wing in the capital. He was acquitted of terror charges in 2016 but convicted of cheating, forgery and impersonation.
After serving out his term, he was shifted to Cherlapalli jail near Hyderabad and then to a prison in Visakhapatnam to be tried in several other cases.
Three days after being freed on bail, he was arrested by Jharkhand police from Achampet court in Telangana's Mahbubnagar district in December. Since then he has been at the Tenughat sub-jail in Bokaro district.
Ghandy is an accused in two cases of attacks on the security forces in Bokaro district in 2007 that killed eight personnel.
After his latest arrest, he had issued a handwritten media release saying his arrest was meant only to keep him imprisoned indefinitely, for he had already written to courts in Jharkhand offering to appear before them.
"The FIR has been pending since 2010, and there was no response even though both I and the Cherlapalli jail authorities wrote to the judicial magistrate first class courts at Bokaro and Tenughat twice in this regard," he said.
"The first letter was written over one year ago on November 2, 2016. When there was no response to this, a reminder was sent by me and the jail authorities on March 9, 2017. Still, there was no response."
Ghandy studied at Doon School, Dehradun, and St Xavier's College in hometown Mumbai before leaving for London to study chartered accountancy. He is suspected to have come under the influence of the far Left there.
Ghandy is alleged to have been associated with the CPIML People's War, which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004.
His wife Anuradha Shanbag, who died of malaria in the forests bordering Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in 2008, was a central committee member of the party.
