No deaths due to oxygen shortage at Jaipur Golden, Delhi Police tells court

The police filed a status report before metropolitan magistrate Vivek Beniwal on Tuesday while the court was hearing a plea by family members of the deceased who claimed that the hospital management should be punished

The Delhi Police on Tuesday told a city court that the death of 21 Covid patients at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in northwest Delhi’s Rohini this April was not caused by shortage of medical oxygen.

The family members of the dead patients have demanded a CBI probe and said that the cause of the death of the deceased has been mentioned as respiratory failure by the doctors for the reason that proper oxygen supply was not given to the patients on time. (PTI)

The police filed a status report before metropolitan magistrate Vivek Beniwal on Tuesday while the court was hearing a plea by family members of the deceased who claimed that the hospital management should be punished, but police, with mala fide intention, have neither arrested nor set up an inquiry against the hospital.

On the last date of hearing, the court criticised the probe agency for “casually filing a report” and directed the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) concerned to file a better report.

DCP Pranav Tayal on Tuesday filed the status report and informed that due to the acute shortage of oxygen and increased number of deaths, the hospital sought to draw a link between oxygen supply and fatalities. The report said that the hospital was right in raising the alarm about the shortage of oxygen in wider public interest and the other admitted patients.

The report further said the hospital did not receive oxygen supply for almost 30 hours — from 5.30pm on April 22 to 11.45pm on April 23.

“On scrutiny of death summaries of all deceased persons, it revealed that no death of patient was caused due to shortage of oxygen,” Tayal said.

The police also told the court that the hospital authorities were not in a position to comment on or refute the preliminary conclusions drawn by a Delhi government committee, that also probed the deaths.

The family members of the dead patients have demanded a CBI probe and said that the cause of the death of the deceased has been mentioned as respiratory failure by the doctors for the reason that proper oxygen supply was not given to the patients on time.

On Tuesday, the court was told that on the date of the incident, the hospital was starved of oxygen and it is a matter of record that M/s Inox, the gas supplier, supplied 3.8 MT on April 24 at 5:30 pm.

“Resultantly, when this situation ensued, there appeared to be a linkage between the unusually high number of deaths and deficient oxygen supply,” the hospital added.

The court will now hear the matter on October 6.