Ravi Belagere plays health card, sent back from hospital to jail

Bengaluru: Journalist and editor of ‘Hai Bangalore’ Kannada weekly tabloid, Ravi Belagere, was taken from Parappana Agrahara central prison to Victoria Hospital and back on Tuesday evening, after he complained of severe body ache and fluctuating blood pressure and sugar levels, which later turned out to be bogus.

Belagere, arrested on charges of giving a supari to kill his colleague Sunil Heggaravalli, was moved to the central prison on Monday, after the 1st ACMM court remanded him in judicial custody. On Tuesday, Day One in prison, he reportedly refused to have breakfast until he was given cigarettes by the prison staff. It is learnt that the staff finally convinced him that he was in the hospital and he is not supposed to smoke there. The doctors in the prison hospital gave him nicotine patches.

Meanwhile, his daughter who had brought him home food, stood in the queue along with relatives of other inmates to get special entry to meet her father. As Belagare was in the hospital, the jail authorities permitted her to meet him in the hospital.    

Speaking to reporters, Chetana Belagere said that her father was stable. “The court has permitted home food. As he could not stop himself from smoking cigarettes, the doctors have instead given him nicotine patches. They have assured that he would be shifted to an outside hospital if required." 

Later in the evening when Belagere complained of severe body ache and claimed he his blood pressure, sugar levels had shot up, doctors recommended that he should be shifted to Victoria Hospital. When he was taken there, the doctors who examined him refused to admit him as his BP and sugar levels were normal. The police personnel then brought him back to the prison.