Court refuses bail to medical students booked for negligence

Two medical students in Mumbai have had their bail pleas rejected after being accused of conducting surgeries and causing the death of a newborn due to medical negligence. The court noted that the students were not qualified to perform surgeries and there were allegations of tampering with evidence.

MUMBAI: The sessions court has rejected bail pleas of two medical students, who allegedly conducted surgeries at a hospital set up by their father and were booked for medical negligence after a newborn died in December 2022.

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According to the prosecution case, Altaf Khan, 22, and his brother Mehtaab Khan, 25, were managing RN Memorial Hospital set up by their father Hussain Ali in Shivaji Nagar. The two, however, were medical students and not qualified to conduct surgeries.

The complainant, Sohel Hussain, had lodged a police complaint on December 18, 2022 after he lost his baby due to the alleged medical negligence of the brothers. Hussain is a resident of Nagpur, while his wife is from Mumbai. The woman had come to her maternal home in the city for delivery in July 2022.

The woman had registered for delivery at the hospital and was admitted on December 17, 2022. Hussain claimed that, at around 3.20am, his wife gave birth to a baby girl, however, the infant did not make any movement and her heartbeat was low. At that time, the complainant claimed, Mehatab and a nurse Solihya asked him to carry the newborn baby to Muksan Hospital, but an ambulance equipped with oxygen was not provided.

On the other hand, the accused claimed that the RN Memorial Hospital had been in existence for a long time, and many successful surgeries and operations had been conducted without any complaint. There were multiple surgeons who had been empaneled by RN Memorial Hospital and all of them were duly qualified with necessary specialty and super-specialty qualifications, they said.

The court, however, observed that the accused gave medical treatment to a patient without a valid degree. Besides, there were allegations regarding tampering with evidence and hence, the court said, the accused failed to make ground to be enlarged on bail.