Hospital is new jail: Lalu Prasad Yadav spends 17 months out of 19 for treatment
Mumbai: It is usually observed that health complications easily develop with high profile people when they land in jails. When one looks into the past 10-year history of Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail where over a dozen of VIP inmates suffered illness and got themselves shifted from jail to hospital.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad is the latest example. This 71-year-old leader has so far spent 17 months out of 19 in hospital and still has not recovered. He is currently admitted in the paying ward of the state’s premiere hospital Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, under a tight security manned by as many as 42 police personnel, reported Hindustan Times.
“RIMS director sends Prasad’s health report every month, but none of the reports declared him fit and stable. Once we get a positive report, we would immediately shift him to the jail,” Inspector General (IG), prison, Virendra Bhushan was quoted by HT.
Since December 23, 2017, the former Bihar chief minister has been serving jail term after his conviction in three separate fodder scam cases one after another (he got bail this month in one of these cases). But, only after two months, he had developed health complications.
Lalu Prasad Yadav was first shifted to RIMS and then to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. He was referred back to RIMS after AIIMS declared him fit in May, 2018.
Soon, he got parole to attend his elder son’s wedding. He was then enlarged on provisional bail granted by the High Court for advance treatment at a Mumbai based hospital. He returned to RIMS in the end of August, 2018. Since then, he is under treatment at RIMS where he is admitted in paying ward equipped with air conditioner and other facilities.
Though Prasad has been suffering from many diseases, the primary concern is his ‘Type 2’ diabetes and hypertension.
Talking to HT, Senior doctor DK Jha, who is treating the RJD chief said, “Prasad has been suffering from 15 diseases. The prime concern is his uncontrolled diabetes with high dependence on insulin. He is a chronic kidney patient, as the organs were found functioning 50 per cent only. Besides, other major concern is his irregular heartbeats. His immune system is also on a weaker side as he had suffered skin and urine infections on six occasions in the past.”
“We send his health report every Friday to senior superintendent of police and the jail authorities,” Dr Jha said.
Earlier in 2010-12, state’s former water resource minister Kamlesh Singh, facing disproportionate asset case lodged by the CBI, had undergone a prolonged treatment in custody for more than a year in RIMS. Besides Singh, a slew of other former ministers and legislators including Enos Ekka, Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Madhu Koda, Dhullu Mahto and Chandrashekhar Dubey were also treated in custody at RIMS.
