AGRA: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Lucknow on Tuesday sought a fresh report on the medical treatment being provided to Atiq-ur-Rahman, 26, a heart patient booked under stringent sedition and UAPA.
The court asked the Mathura district jail to provide the report of Rahman, 26, who has been advised surgical intervention by experts from AIIMS Delhi, in next hearing.
The court’s directions were issued after the jail authorities told it that the accused will be sent for the treatment when the expenditure is made available by the authorities. The next hearing is scheduled on November 8.
Rahman, a PhD scholar at Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, was arrested last year with Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and two others on the way to Hathras to meet the gang-rape victim’s family.
Later, the Enforcement Directorate had started investigating money laundering charges against them.
The counsel for the accused said in the court that the applicant is suffering from life threatening disease and continuous illness may cause serious threat to his life.
Therefore, the court may issue appropriate directions for providing necessary medical treatment to the applicant and the jail authorities be directed to furnish the report of the treatment being provided to him before the court.
According to district jail authorities, they have submitted the demand of expenditure to the director general of police/inspector general, Prison Administration and Reform Services, UP on October 10 and as soon as they get the approval, Rahman will be sent to the AIIMS Delhi for surgery.
The authorities told the court that AIIMS experts have asked for Rs. 2lakh and 10 units of blood for surgery of Rahman for Aortic Regurgitation disease.
Rahman was being taken to the PMLA court for a hearing when he got sick on September 22.
He was taken to a community health centre, from where he was sent to the district hospital in Agra and then to SN Medical College in the same city. The doctors there referred him to a higher centre — SGPGI (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences) in Lucknow or AIIMS in Delhi. But authorities took him back to jail instead.
Later, he was taken to AIIMS for an expert opinion and was advised surgery by the doctors.
