E-Paper
Death of 87 Covid-19 patients in 42 days puts doctor siblings in police custody
PUNE Born to a teacher couple in Miraj, the Jadhav brothers were quite revered in the town until a hospital owned by the younger sibling was allegedly found responsible for the death of 87 Covid-19 patients in 42 days
PUNE Born to a teacher couple in Miraj, the Jadhav brothers were quite revered in the town until a hospital owned by the younger sibling was allegedly found responsible for the death of 87 Covid-19 patients in 42 days.
Apexcare hospital in Miraj, a dedicated Covid hospital came into existence during the first wave in 2020. It had 208 admissions between April 14 and May 27 in 2021. This is when the deaths were recorded, according to police.
On Monday, neurosurgeon Dr Madan Jadhav (41), was remanded to four days of police custody after having already spent two days in police custody. The decision was made by Judicial magistrate first class Swati Naiknaware in the presence of public prosecutor Abhijeet Gopalkar, defence lawyer, identified only by his last name, advocate Jadhav, and investigating officer, senior inspector Shashikant Chavan of Gandhi chowk police station.
Dr Mahesh Jadhav, will be in police custody until Wednesday, while his elder brother, Dr Madan Jadhav, will be produced again in court on Thursday.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the arrested doctor did not deny that he helped his brother, plastic surgeon Dr Mahesh Jadhav (36), tamper with ECG sheets. This was allegedly done between the registration of the FIR on June 4 against Dr Mahesh Jadhav, and his arrest on June 18.
“We found these patient files in a house owned by one of the doctor siblings, but rented to another man. We have voice-call recordings from an employee of the erstwhile Covid hospital. We believe the voice in the call recording is that of Dr Madan Jadhav,” said PI Chavan.
The police have now collected voice samples of Dr Madan Jadhav and recovered an ECG machine from Apexcare hospital, which he owns. The police told the court that the accused has multiple bank accounts that need to be checked for unwarranted financial gains.
The defence lawyer, meanwhile, argued that the neurosurgeon and the hospital manager should be witnesses in the case, and not appear as accused.
Others arrested, besides the doctor siblings, include hospital manager Prasanna Chandrakant Karanjkar (36), accountant Nisha Amit Patil (40), laboratory technicians Basavraj Shankar Kamble (33) and Rajendra Mhalappa Dhage (34), Bharat Sudhakar Bhallal (24), Narendra Balasaheb Jadhav (29), Gokul Vinayak Rathod (23), and Janakiram alias Balu Maruti Sawant (29).
A case under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder); 420 (cheating); 406 (criminal breach of trust); 425, 427, 465, 470, 471 (using forged document as genuine); 201 (destruction of evidence); 380, 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with Section 51(b) of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, has been registered at Mahatma Gandhi police station in Miraj. On Monday, Section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) of IPC was added to the case.
