This is the second time that the HC has released an HIVpositive convict on bail. Last year, the court had granted bail to another convict, deploring the lack of medical care available to prisoners in prisons.
The convict (name withheld), a 50–year–old resident of Madhya Pradesh, is currently lodged in Aurangabad Central Prison. He was held guilty under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for alleged possession of 41 kg of contraband.
The convict claimed that he could have contracted HIV while in jail following a surgery for a urinary tract infection. His lawyers alleged that he had undergone blood transfusion at the hospital. The convict pleaded for bail so that he could avail of treatment at a private hospital; he had expressed apprehension that lack of medical facilities in the jail could cost him his life.
Advocate Mandar Goswami, counsel for the Narcotics Control Bureau, however, opposed the bail plea and urged the court to send him for tests to a government hospital.
Another bench of the HC is also hearing a case related to providing medical aid to HIV–positive prisoners. In Arthur Road jail, 21 prisoners were found to be HIV positive, while seven had died of AIDS in Yerawada Jail between January 2004 and July 2009. Reports submitted to the court had revealed that jails did not have any infrastructure or facilities to provide anti–retroviral treatment to such prisoners. The government has assured the court that it would set up integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTC) at central prisons.
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Source :Times of India
