NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court directed the medical superintendent of the Tihar jail on Thursday to ensure “efficacious” treatment to former Popular Front of India (PFI) chairman E Abubacker, who was sent to the prison in a case lodged under the stringent UAPA, for his aliments on a regular basis.

Hearing an appeal filed by Abubacker, seeking his release from the jail on medical grounds, the court also issued a notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the appellant’s application, in which he has sought the placing of certain documents on record.

The court asked the NIA to file its response on the factual assertions made in the application and listed the matter for further hearing on March 13.“In the meantime, the medical superintendent of Tihar Jail is directed to ensure that the appellant is provided efficacious treatment for all his illnesses on a regular basis,” a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh said.

Abubacker has filed the appeal challenging a trial court order that refused to release him on medical grounds. Abubacker was arrested by the NIA during a massive crackdown on the PFI, a banned organisation, and is presently in judicial custody.

Advocate Adit Pujari, appearing in the court on behalf of Abubacker, submitted that an affidavit has been filed detailing the recent position and his medical condition in jail, based on a “virtual mulakat”.

“He has a ‘sevadar’ with whom he cannot even communicate as his languages are only Malayalam and English. This is the first and only case against him. He has been a school teacher. He is someone who is 71 and seeing the confines of a prison for the first time,” Pujari said. The NIA’s counsel referred to a video showing Abubacker addressing thousands of people in Hindi.