Ahmedabad: Civil doctors save man accused of bombing hospital

AHMEDABAD: In an ironic twist, a man accused of bombing the Civil Hospital in 2008 which killed 37 people including many medical and paramedical staffers has survived the viral complications after being administered exhaustive treatment for 46 days at the Covid-ward by doctors.
Mohammed Habib Falahi was treated at Civil Hospital's Covid facility which is just a few steps away from the old trauma centre which was hit by a powerful blast 12 years ago. Falahi is one of the 78 accused facing trial for the bombing of Civil Hospital. That attack was by far the most deadly of the 19 strikes that shook Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, and one of the first terror strikes in a hospital campus.
Falahi was discharged and sent on Thursday evening to the Sabarmati jail, where he has been lodged for the past 12 years. He was admitted to the Covid ward on June 1 after he complained of dry cough and fever. Hospital authorities declared him Covid positive and said that his hypertension delayed recovery. He was shifted to the ICU on a couple of occasions to deal with breathing problems, said his brother Abu Amir, who came from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh after learning about Falahi’s illness.
“I did not get the report of my brother’s condition even on Friday,” Amir told TOI. “When I inquired, I was told that he was discharged on Thursday evening.” After he came to know that Falahi had been admitted to the Covid ward, Amir moved the special court that hears the 2008 blasts case and obtained directions to the hospital to release Falahi’s report.
Amir regularly talked to Falahi through the video-conferencing facility created outside the Covid ward for the kin of patients. But as the hospital authorities denied him the facility in the last week of June, Amir moved the court once again. The court on July 3 directed the hospital to allow Amir access to the video-conferencing facility according to the norms. “I had to approach the court because my brother’s condition had worsened and he was once again put on oxygen and I was not getting any information,” he said.
Because of the terror strike on the Civil Hospital campus, the accused persons in this case fear coming here for treatment. In August 2019, Mohammed Ismail Mansuri had to be hospitalized. But before his admission to Civil Hospital, he approached the court expressing apprehension that he could be discriminated against by the doctors. The court ordered the hospital authorities to film the treatment of the accused and to place him in an area covered by CCTV surveillance.