Panchkula, February 1
On the directions of a Panchkula court, the police have registered a case against Ojas Hospital and its management for fraudulently declaring a resident of Sector 26 here as a Covid patient.
The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate directed the SHO, Chandimandir police station to register an FIR under Sections 269, 270, 420,468, 471, 120-B and 506 of the IPC, 1860.
Counsels Smeer Sethi and Sajal Bansal had averred that Tarsem Chand (67), a diabetic patient, was admitted to Ojas Hospital with heaviness in his chest due to cough. Instead of providing any first aid, doctors on duty directed his family members to take him to the emergency room where only one lady doctor was present. The doctor checked blood pressure and oxygen level of the patient, which were absolutely fine at that time. Without performing any test, the doctor declared him to be a Covid patient within 2 minutes. The doctor directed the patient’s son, Saurabh Sharma, to move out of the room and bolted the door from inside.
The doctor told Saurabh that his father was a heart patient. After confirming the same, the doctor went back inside. He again came with the lady doctor after two minutes and told him that the patient had suffered a heart attack and and was serious.
The doctor asked his son to sign some documents to give some steroids to the patient and was asked to deposit Rs 20,000 with the hospital. When the complainant’s son visited the hospital, he was told that the patient was on ventilator and had been admitted to the Covid ward due to his critical condition. He was informed by the official from the Health Department that there was no such information in their record from the hospital about his father being a Covid patient. A sum of around Rs 9-10 lakh was spent by the family on the treatment till then, which was borrowed from friends and relatives.
The family then filed a complaint with the police on June 16, 2022 but the police registered a daily diary report. After the police failed to take any action, the aggrieved resident filed an application in the court against the police on January 23, 2023 through his counsels.
