New Delhi: The Delhi Police have arrested two doctors and two technicians associated with a private healthcare centre in the Greater Kailash area of the city for allegedly conducting surgeries without proper degrees, causing at least two deaths.
Those arrested this Tuesday are Dr Niraj Agarwal, who ran the Agarwal Medical Centre, his wife Pooja Agarwal (a former technician), Dr Jaspreet Singh, and lab technician Mahender Singh.
The police said they made the arrests on the basis of the report of a medical board of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi, which gave its opinion on one of the two deaths — that of Asgar Ali (45) — and also evidence that the surgeries were conducted by unqualified people.
While a complaint by Ali’s wife after his death last year led to a police investigation, it was the death of 44-year-old Jai Narayan as recently as October this year that led to the arrests after the police filed a fresh case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 304 A (death due to negligence) on a complaint by the latter’s brother.
According to a statement issued Wednesday by Chandan Chowdhary, deputy commissioner of police, South District, Ali’s wife filed a written complaint at the Greater Kailash Police Station on 25 October, 2022. In this complaint, she said Ali was admitted to the healthcare centre for treatment of a gallbladder stone on 19 September last year but died allegedly due to negligence.
The complainant, 41-year-old Naseeb Ul Nisha, alleged that Dr Agarwal had initially assured her that Ali would be operated upon by “famous surgeon” Dr Jaspreet Singh on 19 September. Just before the scheduled surgery, however, he said Dr Jaspreet Singh was unavailable and “Dr” Mahender Singh would be the surgeon instead.
The complainant also alleged that the surgery was eventually carried out collectively by Dr Agarwal, “Dr” Mahender Singh and “Dr” Pooja Agarwal, but she “came to know” later that neither Singh nor Pooja was a doctor.
She alleged that right after the surgery, her husband had complained of severe pain and was referred to the Safdarjung Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
The police statement said a probe was initiated after an FIR was filed under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 196 (using evidence known to be false), 197 (issuing or signing false certificates), 198 (using a false certificate as true), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
According to DCP Chowdhary’s statement, the investigation found that “…on 19/09/22, Dr Jaspreet Singh Bajwa was not present…at the time of the surgery of deceased Asgar Ali. Further, it was also revealed that Dr. Jaspreet Singh had prepared fake documents regarding the surgery of the deceased.”
The AIIMS medical board, which went through Ali’s post mortem (PM) and other reports, said, “After perusal of the PM report, viscera analysis report, histopathology report and inquest papers, we are of the considered opinion that the cause of death is hemorrhagic shock as a complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.”
The police said they had “sufficient evidence regarding planned surgery of a vital organ by a non-qualified person”.
According to the police statement, “…approximately seven complaints were filed to the Delhi Medical Council against Agarwal Medical Centre and Dr Niraj Agarwal & his wife Puja Agarwal from 2016 to date by different complainants wherein the patient lost their life due to negligence.”
Most recent botched surgery
In the second complaint dated 28 October this year, the complainant, Major Basoya, a resident of Gadhi village in East of Kailash, alleged that his younger brother, Jai Narayan, was killed by Dr Agarwal, his wife Pooja and other staff of the Agarwal Medical Centre.
He said he admitted Jai Narayan at the medical centre after the latter complained of a stomach ache on 26 October. The next day, Jai Naryaan called up the family to inform them that Dr Agarwal had allegedly sought Rs 15,000 for an urgent surgery. The complainant alleged that he paid the amount and Dr Agarwal carried out the surgery along with his wife and the cleaning staff of the centre.
Basoya said that 15 minutes after the surgery, Dr Agarwal informed him that his brother had succumbed to a heart attack. He alleged that the room where the operation was carried out was not sterilised, there were no “authorised doctors” for anaesthesia, nor were any diagnostic tests performed before the surgery.
Meanwhile, a police team raided the medical centre premises as well as the residences of the accused and seized 414 blank and signed prescription slips, and two registers containing details of patients whose medical termination of pregnancy was carried out at the centre.
Police said the team had also seized banned medicines and injections and expired surgical blades, as well as chequebooks of 47 different banks and passbooks of different post offices.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: Delhi police act in Rashmika Mandanna deepfake video case, file FIR, ‘obtain details’ from Meta