Bombay High Court on Thursday directed that doctors from a private hospital here should conduct medical examination of the jailed poet-activist Varavara Rao through video link, and a physical check-up if necessary.

The court, which was hearing his bail petition, adjourned the hearing to November 17.

Rao, 81, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links case, is lodged as an undertrial in the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. A vacation bench of Justices A.K. Menon and S.P. Tavade was hearing a petition filed by Rao’s wife Hemlata, seeking that he be shifted to the private Nanavati Hospital for better treatment, an independent medical board be set up to assess his health, and he be released on bail.

Rao’s lawyer Indira Jaising claimed that his health was “fast deteriorating”, and there was apprehension that he might die in prison. Rao suffers from dementia, is confined to bed in the prison hospital since August and has no bladder control, she said. If Rao died in prison, it would be a case of “custodial death”, Jaising said, adding that his detention violated his right to life under Article 21.