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Chandigarh: PGI patient injected with mystery potion dies
25-year-old woman dies after battling for life for 25 days; already arrested, her brother, three others will now be tried for murder
The 25-year-old woman, who was administered an unknown injection by an unidentified woman at PGIMER’s gynaecology ward on November 15, died on Sunday after battling for life for 25 days.
The patient, Harmeet Kaur, had been on ventilator support since November 19 after her condition deteriorated.
Terming it a case of honour killing, police have registered a case of murder against four people, including Harmeet’s brother Jasmeet Singh, 22.
Sector 11 SHO inspector Malkit Singh said all four accused, including the woman who administered the injection, were already in judicial custody for attempting to kill her. They will now be tried for murder: “Sections in the FIR have now been converted to murder (302, IPC).”
Family disapproved of her marriage
As per police probe, the murder attempt on the victim, a resident of Rajpura, was a result of her brother Jasmeet’s disapproval of her marriage to man of a different caste.
Her family, who are Jat Sikhs, were upset that she had married Gurvinder Singh, a Rajput Sikh.
Gurvinder said he knew Harmeet since school days and they had remained in a relationship for five years before they got married. “We tried to get her family’s approval, but they were against it. They wanted Harmeet to marry someone else, but she refused. After they got to know of our relationship, her kin tried to harm her. As it became clear to us that the family will never approve of our relationship, we decided to elope,” he had told police.
He said they got married in September 2022, following which they had to take police protection for four months, fearing an attack from Harmeet’s family. He said they continued to live at an undisclosed location till September 2023, after which they had to return to Rajpura as his mother’s health started deteriorating.
Brother hired paramedic to administer injection
Jasmeet’s anger towards the couple grew when Harmeet gave birth to a child on November 3, as per his disclosure to police.
In conspiracy with Buta Singh, 38, his distant relative, and Mandeep, 25, a patient care professional and Buta’s friend, Jasmeet hired Jaspreet Kaur, all of 20 and a paramedic, to kill his sister in exchange for a meagre ₹3,000
Jaspreet, hailing from Safipur Khurd village in Sangrur, worked as a caretaker and was trained in administering injections, police had said.
So far, police suspect Harmeet was administered a cocktail of sanitiser, mosquito killer spray and sleeping pills. Police investigations suggest that the injection vial was obtained from Rajindra Hospital in Patiala, and provided to Jaspreet by Buta and Mandeep.
Contract killer struck on November 15
Harmeet was admitted to an ICU at PGIMER with kidney problems on November 7 after giving birth to a boy on November 3. She was shifted to the gynaecology ward on the third floor of Nehru Hospital, D Block, on November 13 after improvement in her condition.
Two days later, around 11 pm, while she was resting, a mysterious woman (later identified as Jaspreet) entered the ward and told Harmeet’s sister-in-law Jatinder Kaur that she needed to administer an injection to Harmeet for her treatment.
While permitting the woman, Jatinder enquired about the injection and her name. Having already administered the injection, the woman, on being questioned, immediately left without disclosing her name. As Jatinder raised the alarm, Harmeet was promptly shifted to ICU and PGIMER had marked an inquiry.
Following her husband’s complaint, police had arrested the four accused on November 21.
PGIMER still mum on what worsened her condition
Following the shocking murder bid on the patient, Chandigarh Police had sought to know from PGIMER how anyone could visit any patient and administer any injection. They had also sought details whether any symptoms or changes occurred in the health of the patient since the injection incident.
Over three weeks later, PGIMER has yet to come out with the findings, if any, with officials saying, they will be shared with police only.
In its statement on Sunday, PGIMER said Harmeet was admitted to the hospital on November 7 in a critical condition after referral from an outside hospital. She already had acute kidney injury, absent urine output and multi-organ dysfunction, resultant of complications of delivery. She had also already received dialysis before referral to PGIMER.
The statement further read that she was shifted to the Advanced Trauma Centre ICU on November 16 due to poor prognosis, “may be as a consequence of the unknown substance injected into her through a fraudulent attempt that aggravated the already critical condition”.
However, her condition kept worsening and she could not be resuscitated.
The patient’s husband said she was going to be discharged the very next day when she was injected, as her condition was improving. But it worsened after she was injected, prompting doctors to move her to ventilator support.
The patient’s body has been sent for autopsy to confirm the cause of death. “The body will be handed over to the next of kin after completion of medico-legal formalities by police,” said PGIMER spokesperson Dr Vipin Kaushal.
