Refuting the allegations of poor treatment to Vernon Gonsalves, who has tested Dengue positive and is now admitted to JJ hospital, the Taloja jail superintendent who appeared before the court has submitted in his report before a special court that it is Gonsalves, who had refused to get admitted at the jail’s hospital ward.
On Monday, the prison’s doctor was also present before the special court. An affidavit was submitted last week signed by an advocate who had gone to the prison to meet Gonsalves’s co-accused. It was filed a day after Gonsalves had sought temporary bail on the basis of suffering from Dengue. The affidavit stated that the co-accused of Gonsalves had informed him of the manner in which Gonsalves was given only antibiotics and injections and not tested for Dengue, though the jail doctors had suspected him of it. It had said that only after fervent requests, he was taken to JJ hospital, but instead of being admitted there, he was brought back after treatment. The court had summoned the jail superintendent.
On Monday, in a report submitted before the court, the jail superintendent stated that on Sep 5, when Gonsalves’ fever was not subsiding despite medication and injections, he was asked to be admitted to the jail’s hospital ward, but he refused it. It also stated that doctors from Alibaug hospital had come to collect his blood samples on Sep 6 and the same day, he was checked by a Panvel hospital visiting doctor. Later, on the advice of the visiting doctor and the jail doctors, he was shifted to JJ hospital, which sent him back after treatment.
Special Public Prosecutor for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Prakash Shetty on Monday told the court that Gonsalves was given continuous and proper treatment by the jail and that it is he who had refused to get admitted to the prison’s hospital ward.
