Sion hospital accident: Dr Rajesh Dere granted bail

Arrested on Saturday evening and produced before the Bhoiwada metropolitan magistrate court on Sunday, Dr Dere was remanded to judicial custody initially, but was granted bail almost immediately on a bond of ₹20,000

MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court on Sunday granted bail to Dr Rajesh Dere, head of the forensic department at LTMG Sion Hospital, who allegedly mowed down a 60-year-old woman patient inside the premises of the civic hospital on Friday. Arrested on Saturday evening and produced before the Bhoiwada metropolitan magistrate court on Sunday, Dr Dere was remanded to judicial custody initially, but was granted bail almost immediately on a bond of ₹20,000.

Dr Rajesh Dere

This was despite CCTV footage from the hospital showing the woman, Rubeda Shaikh, died after she came under the wheels of a Tata Harrier driven by Dr Dere. “The front left wheel of the vehicle ran over her first, after which she got stuck under the left rear tyre,” said a police officer.

The postmortem report of Shaikh, prepared at Sir JJ Hospital, too indicated that she may have died after being crushed under wheels of the car. The report mentioned ‘bilateral haemothorax’ as the cause of death. “It means accumulation of blood on both sides of the thoracic cavity,” explained a senior forensic doctor at the hospital, saying it could be due to trauma, surgical interventions, or fracture of ribs. “In Zubeida’s case, her ribs were fractured, which must have led to excessive bleeding and accumulation of blood in the thoracic cavity, leading a haemorrhagic shock and death.”

Shaikh’s viscera samples have been sent for histopathological and chemical analysis, following which a final death certificate would be issued, he said.

Dr Dere was the nodal coordinator for all jumbo Covid-19 centres established during the pandemic. He was made the dean of the jumbo centre at BKC and played a key role in its setting up and day-to-day functioning.

On Friday evening, when Dr Dere was leaving the hospital in his Tata Harrier SUV, he allegedly ran over Shaikh inside the hospital premises. According to the police, Shaikh, a resident of Mumbra, was present at the hospital to treat a wound that was not healing on account of diabetic complications. “I got a call from an unknown number at around 3.30am on Saturday, which I did not answer. When I called back on the number the next morning, the person at the other end said he was from Sion police station and my mother had met with an accident,” said her son Shahnawaz.

Police personnel visited the hospital on Saturday morning after they were informed about the incident late at night on Friday. They checked on Shaikh, who had been admitted, and saw suspicious injury marks on her body, after which they asked the hospital for CCTV footage. “While the footage was made available after a lot of effort and coaxing, at around 3pm on Saturday, the hospital informed us that the woman had died,” said a police officer.

The FIR relating to the incident, with Dr Dere as accused, was also registered more than 24 hours after the incident.

“We have analysed the CCTV footage from the hospital premises and will now record statements of the witnesses,” said Manisha Shirke, senior inspector attached with the Bhoiwada police station.