NEW DELHI, 21 June 2006 — Suspecting doctors of Delhi’s Apollo Hospital of having played a dubious role in the Rahul Mahajan case, the Delhi Police questioned several of them yesterday. Rahul, the son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, was admitted to the hospital on June 2 in a critical condition because of suspected drug overdose.
He and a few others, including Vivek Moitra, apparently had drugs and drinks at Pramod’s official residence at Safdarjung Road, the preceding evening. Moitra was also rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead. Though hospital authorities informed the police about the case, several factors have prompted the police to conduct investigations on the role played by doctors.
Initially, the doctors declined that Rahul’s condition was due to drug use. Secondly, the police was informed two hours after Rahul was admitted to the hospital. Of the 150 medical staff listed, including doctors, expected to be grilled by the police, several faced the scanner yesterday.
“We have summoned the doctors and the questioning is on,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Suman Nalwa, who is heading the probe against the hospital. “We suspect the hospital had purposely hidden information,” Nalwa said.
Doctors who had treated Rahul, while he was admitted till June 5, were the first to be grilled.
These include Prasad Rao, who headed the team attending on Rahul, Anupam Sibal, medical director of Apollo and Mukund Pandey, a senior doctor.
Suspecting doctors of having provided police with false information regarding Rahul’s drug abuse, as per directions of the court, the police registered a case against Apollo on June 9.
“We registered a case against the hospital under Section 182 of Indian Penal Code (on charges of providing false information),” a senior police official said.
Initially, the hospital had said that tests had not revealed any narcotics in Rahul’s blood and urine samples. Subsequently, however, tests conducted by Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory found traces of illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine in the samples.
