The Delhi Police on Tuesday, 3 August, told a Delhi court that the death of 21 COVID-19 patients in Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital in April was not caused due to oxygen shortage, even though the hospital has claimed otherwise.
The deaths took place on the intervening night of 23 and 24 April.
WHAT DOES THE DELHI POLICE STATUS REPORT ALLEGE?
The Delhi Police’s status report, filed in a plea seeking registration of FIR for offence of murder, against the management of Jaipur Golden Hospital reads:
“On scrutiny of death summaries of all deceased persons, it revealed that no death of any patient was caused due to shortage of oxygen.”
WHAT DOES THE HOSPITAL CLAIM?
Jaipur Golden Hospital, in its response to a notice issued to it seeking the death summaries, said that there was no oxygen refill by INOX at the scheduled time which resulted in the crisis.
Further the hospital reportedly said, “After initial scrutiny of the patients' death, prima facie at that moment, it appeared that in four cases there was a drop of oxygen pressure around 9:45 PM on April 23, which is an unusual occurrence in such numbers.”
The hospital also stated that it 'expressed a legitimate concern and raised alarm bells in the wider public interest to ensure and ascertain non-interrupted oxygen supply for other admitted patients'.
THE PLEA
According to LiveLaw, the plea has been moved by six family members of the deceased patients alleging that the Jaipur Golden Hospital’s management should be charged with offences including murder, criminal intimidation, death by negligence, criminal conspiracy etc.
Further, the plea seeks for the Court to take cognisance of the charges, and goes on to claim that the Police, owing to mala fide intention, did not set up an inquiry against the hospital management.
MORE DETAILS
As per LiveLaw, the police has claimed that the Delhi Medical Council has been asked for opinion regarding medical negligence allegations against the doctors and medical staff of the hospital. Their response is awaited, the Delhi Police report points out.
Meanwhile, as per PTI, the Delhi government's expert committee had earlier said that 'shortage of oxygen as the cause of death could not be ascertained'.
(With inputs from LiveLaw and PTI)
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