More than four months after the Haryana Police submitted a chargesheet in a high-profile case pertaining to death of seven-year-old Adya at Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) here due to dengue amid allegations of medical negligence and over-charging, her father has now filed a protest petition in the Gurugram court accusing the police of “shoddy” investigation.
In a 21-page petition, filed in the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Ravish Kaushik on January 30, Adya’s father Jayant Singh has sought chargesheet against FMRI through its managing committee, Dr. Krishan Chugh and addition of relevant charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy, under the Indian Penal Code against all the accused persons. The petition has also sought directions to the police to carry out further investigation and include relevant documents and evidence in the chargesheet.
Mr. Singh’s counsel Mallika Parmar on Thursday said that the Haryana Police submitted a voluminous chargesheet in the case with all the relevant documents, but did not make those accused in the case against whom offences were made out.
Diluted charges
Ms. Parmar added that despite the legal opinion of District Attorney that the case be filed under Section 304 Part-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the police deliberately and with mala fide intention diluted it to 304-A (causing death due to negligence) at the time of filing of the chargesheet. “There is a huge difference between the two Sections of the IPC and the provision of punishment under them. For Section 304-A IPC, the maximum punishment is just two years,” she pointed out.
Ms. Parmar added that a clear case of forgery was also made out against the hospital based on the government appointed inquiry committee’s report and it was the responsibility of the Investigation Officer to take handwriting samples of the hospital staff and doctors to find out as to who had actually committed the forgery by signing the consent documents and leaving against medical advice request, but no such efforts were made.
Probe an eyewash
Terming the probe into the case “eyewash”, she said that it was a clear attempt by the police to shield the Fortis management and the senior doctors by putting the entire blame on one doctor.
Ms. Parmar came down heavily on the police for not pressing the bribery charges against the hospital for offering ₹15 lakh, later enhanced to ₹25 lakh, besides the refund of complete amount paid by Mr. Singh for his daughter’s treatment. She said that the police accepted the hospital’s contention that the offer for the money was made on “humanitarian” grounds, seeking to know as to in how many cases had the hospital offered the money to the kin of the deceased on humanitarian grounds, beside Adya’s.
Offered money
Mr. Singh said that the hospital offering money when an investigation was going on in the case for an out-of-court settlement was, indeed, bribery. He also lamented that the police did not bring about relevant Sections for over-charging and did not make him a complainant in the case.
Fortis Memorial Hospital, in a statement, said: “...We have provided complete cooperation to all relevant Government and administrative authorities during the inquiry process...”