NEW DELHI, 4 June 2006 — Doctors at Delhi’s Apollo Hospital said yesterday that the blood sample of Rahul Mahajan did not contain cocaine or any other drug. Rahul, son of late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan, was admitted to the hospital on Friday after suspected drug overdose.
Dr. Anupam Sibal of Apollo Hospital said tests for toxic screen were negative, including those for cocaine and ecstasy. The tests were done for 14 drugs and doctors have been unable to establish why Rahul fell so drastically ill. Rahul’s CT scan report is also normal and he has been put off life support, he added.
“The condition of Rahul Mahajan has gradually improved over the last 12 hours. After due assessment of clinical status and investigation, our team of doctors found his vital parameters improving,” a medical bulletin released by Apollo Hospital said.
Pramod Mahajan’s secretary Vivek Moitra, who was brought to the hospital with Rahul, was declared dead on arrival. Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have conducted an autopsy on Moitra’s body. A case has been filed with the police and preliminary investigations are on.
Police are interrogating Rahul Malhotra, Tishay Khanna and Karan Ahuja, who were present at Pramod Mahajan’s 7, Safdarjung Road house on Thursday night. The fourth person present at the house when Rahul Mahajan and Moitra took ill, Sahil Zarru, a resident of Srinagar, surrendered to police at the office of a private news channel in the Kashmir Valley. Earlier, police questioned his father, Ghulam Mohammad, in Delhi.
Sahil, 21, a student of St. Xavier’s College in Bombay, told the news channel that he was not a drug-peddler and had gone to Rahul Mahajan’s residence for the first time. Sahil said Rahul Mahajan and Vivek Moitra fell sick after they took cocaine.
The Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday distanced itself from Rahul. “This is a family matter and this can happen to anyone. The party has nothing to say on this,” said senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj after the top brass of the party met at the residence of former party chief Lal Krishna Advani.
Swaraj said the party leaders had met to discuss the office of profit bill issue and the party’s strategy in the wake of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s refusal to sign the bill.
However, BJP sources said party officials informally discussed the Rahul Mahajan episode and decided not to come out with any statement on the issue.
