The Custodial Death of Kanchan Nannavare – a case of Criminal Negligence?
By PUCL Team
On 26th September 2014, Kanchan Nannavare, a young educated Adivasi woman aged about 30 years, charged under 420, 467, 468, 471, 33 IPC and the UAPA Act, was admitted to the Women’s Jail of Yerwada Central Prison, in district Pune, Maharashtra. At the time she had a well-documented underlying condition of “Congenital Ischemic Heart Disease with Multiple Ventricular Defects” colloquially called “a hole in the heart.” She had already been operated twice before her admission – in 1996 and in 2013. Though she had submitted medical papers of her history, these were never forwarded to the referral Government Sassoon Hospital, and today the jail denies that they were ever given to them.
For almost two years after her admission, Kanchan was confined to a cell in the Phansi Yard (death row) and was only permitted to enter the corridor of the yard for limited hours. She was bullied and mentally tortured by two very disturbed death row prisoners who occupied the other two cells in the same Yard, and who would gang up against her. By August 2016 her health had deteriorated, and she suffered severe breathlessness and a fainting fit when anti-mosquito fogging was carried out behind her cell. She was then shifted to a regular barrack where she could move around more freely and get fresh air. But by November 2016 she had complaints of generalized swelling over the body and severe breathlessness and was hospitalized for several days.
By August 2018, Kanchan’s Haemoglobin level fell alarmingly to about 6mg/dl and she was suffering from chronic anaemia. Gradually various bodily systems began failing. First her urinary system was affected by “obstructive right upper uretic calculus with hydronephrosis”. She was not allowed to drink more than a few sips of water a day even in the summer heat. Then in February 2019 she was diagnosed with a “cystic lesion in left ovary”, and by June 2019 she had been suffering from Menorrhagia (excessive bleeding in periods) for more than 6 months and had to be hospitalized for a month.
On 23rd September 2019, after five years of incarceration, Kanchan filed for medical bail, but on 14th October 2019, the Pune Sessions Court rejected it on the ground that she was “being treated adequately”. By this time Kanchan had already been acquitted in 3 out of the 4 cases she had been charged with, all three of these were from Gadchiroli district, and only the fourth one from Pune remained.
In January-February 2020, after multiple investigations by experts of Sasson Hospital, Kanchan was diagnosed with “Eisenmengerisation”. This is a long-term complication of a congenital heart defect and is life-threatening. It causes irregular blood flow in the heart and lungs, makes the blood vessels in the lungs stiffer and narrower and blood pressure rises in the lungs’ arteries. Continuous oxygen treatment is the only symptomatic treatment for this condition. The Sassoon Hospital noted, “No cardiac surgical management. Last option for the same would be heart-lung transplantation after thorough assessment. Facility for HL transplant not available at this Institute.” In other words, by Jan-Feb 2020, a year before her death, the jail authorities were aware that Kanchan Nannavare was “terminally ill”. Without a life-saving heart lung transplant, she was steadily plummeting towards a certain death. Neither did the jail authorities make efforts to facilitate such heart-lung transplant, nor did they recommend medical bail, so that Kanchan’s family and friends could help her avail of this treatment. By this time Kanchan’s face was swollen, her abdomen resembled that of a pregnant woman while her arms and legs were spindly. She was moved to the Hospital Barrack, where she was allowed a bed for the first time, though she had to spend whole nights sitting up because of severe breathlessness.
Many of us are not aware that on 13th August 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an Advisory on the policy of treatment of terminally ill prisoners including allowing them to live their last days with their families, shifting them to specialized hospitals or hospices, and even permitting compassionate release. Yerwada Jail authorities also seem to have been unaware of this Advisory issued to Home Secretaries of all states.
In March 2020, Kanchan Nannavare moved the High Court for bail. A panel of doctors constituted as per the Order of the High Court dated 07.10.20 affirmed that she was a case of VSD with Eisenmengerisation. On 25.09.2020, the Superintendent of Yerwada Jail was informed that the Military Hospital Cardio Thoracic Pune had a facility for heart-lung transplant though generally civilians were not treated there. No steps whatsoever were taken by the Superintendent of the Jail to get Kanchan Nannavare a Heart Lung Transplant, whether at the Military Hospital or any other private facility, neither did the Superintendent recommend to the Court that she be granted medical bail.
On 22nd December 2020, a CT Scan showed that Kanchan had a “Chronic Sub-dural Haematoma with midline shift of 7mm to left side.” In other words, a blood clot that threatened to grow larger. This condition was an alarm bell, and she should have been immediately hospitalized. Rather she was sent back to Yerwada jail. When two weeks later she complained of giddiness and there was a fall in blood pressure, rather than immediate hospitalization, she was treated (as malingerers are generally treated in jail) with glucose powder and multivitamins. The greater crime of the jail authorities was that this critical diagnosis was never communicated to Kanchan or to her husband, lodged in the Male Jail just across the road, or to any of her or his relatives, or to the Court.
When Kanchan was next taken to the Sassoon Hospital on 14th January 2021, the Medical Superintendent of the Hospital informed Jail Superintendent Shri UT Pawar that Kanchan required “Burr Hole Drainage with SOS Right Fronto-tempo-parietal craniotomy (urgent) for Subdural Haematoma” and that consent for this life saving procedure would be needed. The next day Shri UT Pawar signed the consent form, falsely stating that the prisoner’s relatives were not available, whereas Arun Bhelke, Kanchan’s husband was lodged in the very same jail.
When asked for his opinion, the treating Cardiologist recorded, “Very high cardiac risk. Including risk of death on table”. The operation was nevertheless conducted on 16th January 2021. Kanchan never regained consciousness. Her husband and other relatives were informed only on 17th January when it became clear that the chances of her recovery were scant. Arun Bhelke could only see his wife on the ventilator on 23rd January 2021 after the court gave him permission.
On 24th January 2021 Kanchan Nannavare, aged 36 years, passed away. The order sheet dated 27th January 2021 in Cr. Bail Petition (L) No. 765/ 2020, states, “Learned Counsel for the Applicant states that the Applicant has unfortunately passed away, therefore nothing survives in this Application.”
But lest this description give an impression that Kanchan Nannavare was a gloomy and sick person, we only have to ask Arun Bhelke (now released) how full of life she was, even in the prison. Her weekly letters written to him are full of her concerns about society and dreams of a better world, the books she would struggle to obtain from the library, the news from the barrack newspaper that she would read from cover to cover. As long as she was relatively well, between 2016-18, her co-prisoners remember her, with her short hair striding along in tomboyish style to help this prisoner or that to write an application to the CMO or Superintendent or Court. The women in the mess loved her as she lived in the same barrack, and they would happily prepare for her the salt free boiled stuff she had to eat and think of ways to make it better. She was the one who would dare to raise all the collective grievances when the officials came on their Round on Saturdays. There was not an essay competition she would not participate in, and she would help women to do their exams. She would also not hesitate to express her strong views about religious obscurantism and encourage the women to stop being repressed by their family members. Her own family had disowned her after she married a dalit co-activist and did not come to meet her even as death approached. But her husband’s family loved her and respected her greatly. She represents the best of what is meant by a political prisoner. It’s a tragedy that a remarkable young woman activist was lost at a young age to the negligence and callousness of the jail and judicial system.