Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, arrested in connection with violence during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest in Old Delhi’s Daryaganj, was taken to AIIMS on Monday for “follow-up consultation and treatment” after multiple appeals were made by his doctors and supporters. Azad is suffering from polycythemia, a condition in which the body makes too many red blood cells.

Sources at AIIMS said Azad has been undergoing treatment at the Department of Hematology for quite some time. “He has been brought for follow-up consultation and treatment. He is undergoing investigations and will be soon sent back,” a source said.

On January 9, a Delhi court had directed Tihar Jail authorities to provide treatment for polycythemia to Azad at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the national capital. In his plea to the court, Azad had said he suffered from polycythemia and “requires continuous checkup from the doctors concerned from AIIMS, who are supervising his treatment for a long time.”

If treatment was not provided urgently, it might lead to cardiac arrest, the plea said. The Bhim Army chief was sent to judicial custody on December 21. Azad’s outfit had organised a march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar against the amended Citizenship Act on December 20, without police permission.

Earlier this month, the jail authorities, said Azad was “absolutely fine” and medical assistance will be provided to him if the need arises. The Delhi Police arrested Chandrashekhar Aazad on December 21, a day after his party organised a march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.

Azad’s doctor Harjeet Singh Bhatti had tweeted on January 3, that the Bhim Army chief suffers from a disease that requires biweekly phlebotomy, a “procedure to remove extra red blood cells from the blood to treat certain blood disorders”.

#Thread
I am writing this as a physician of @BhimArmyChief Chandrashekar Bhai. He is suffering from a disease which requires biweekly phlebotomy from AIIMS, New Delhi under Haematology Department from where he is under treatment from last 1 years (1/n) pic.twitter.com/ReO6Pmphfi

— Harjit Singh Bhatti (@DrHarjitBhatti) January 3, 2020