Cleaner booked for stealing jewellery from elderly patient in hospital

A cleaning staffer at Goyal Hospital is accused of stealing jewelry from an elderly patient who died the same day. Police are investigating the theft.

A cleaning staffer at a private hospital in Krishna Nagar has been booked for allegedly stealing jewellery from an elderly woman admitted to the facility’s emergency ward earlier this month, police said on Tuesday. The patient died later the same day while being shifted to another hospital, they added.

Cleaner booked for stealing jewellery from elderly patient in hospital

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said that Naveen Kumar Gupta, a resident of Vishwas Nagar, told them that he had brought his mother to the emergency of Goyal Hospital on November 11 after her condition deteriorated.

Doctors advised that she be shifted to another facility with higher-level care. Gupta said he stepped out briefly to arrange an ambulance, and in that window, the woman’s tops and ear chain went missing.

Gupta alerted the hospital administration, which began checking the staff. During the internal inquiry, it allegedly emerged that a member of the cleaning team had taken the jewellery. “The tops were recovered and returned to the family with the hospital’s intervention. However, the ear chain could not be traced,” Gautam said.

The elderly woman died later that day while being moved to the other hospital, police said.

A case under Section 303(2) (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered at Krishna Nagar police station and further investigation is underway.