Eight people were arrested following the death of a two-year-old child who was allegedly taken out of a hospital against medical advice.
Acting on a complaint by the security manager of a private children’s hospital, who accused the Kannada activists of creating ruckus at the hospital and forcibly taking away the two-year-old girl from the ICU, the Mahadevapura police arrested Raghavendra Gowda and seven others recently.
The child, Pratheeksha, had been admitted to Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Doddanekundi on March 29 after she fell from a three-storey building while playing. As she had sustained grievous head injuries, she was being treated in the ICU. The hospital had also alerted the jurisdictional Mahadevapura police .
On March 31, a group of people, claiming to be from Suvarna Kannada Rakshana Vedike allegedly barged into the hospital and said they were from the patient’s side. They told the hospital staff that they were not treating the child properly. The staff managed to convince the group and sent them away.
The following day, around 50 to 60 people led by Raghavendra Gowda again barged into the hospital and threatened the hospital security and staff and forced them to discharge Pratheeksha, the complaint said.
Though the doctors said that the child’s condition was critical, the group forcibly took her to another hospital in a private ambulance. The group then threatened the staff that they would vandalise the hospital if they do not issue a cheque of ₹1 lakh out of the ₹2 lakh deposit the parents had paid for treatment. Intimidated, the staff issued a cheque of ₹1 lakh and then approached the police.
The child is said to have breathed her last on April 2.
The HAL police have taken up a case of unnatural death and are investigating.
The accused have been charged under extortion, rioting, trespass and criminal intimidation and also under prohibition of violence against medical service personnel and damage to property in Medicare service institutions Act.