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HC seeks Centre and Delhi govt’s responses on plea for CBI probe in deaths at Jaipur Golden hospital
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday sought the stand of the Centre and the Delhi government on a plea seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of 21 Covid patients at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in north Delhi’s Rohini on April 23-24
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday sought the stand of the Centre and the Delhi government on a plea seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of 21 Covid patients at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in north Delhi’s Rohini on April 23-24.
Justice Rekha Palli issued notice to Union ministries of home affairs and health and the Delhi government seeking their response by August 20 on the plea filed by eight families who have challenged the findings of a city government panel that the deaths had took place due to co-morbidities and not due to the shortage of oxygen.
The court also asked the Delhi government to look into the aspect of providing assistance to the families of the deceased.
It also asked the government to file an affidavit listing out the steps that it had taken to rehabilitate the orphans and extending help to the families who have lost their kin in the second wave of the pandemic.
The judge initially said that a division bench of the high court is already considering the aspect of compensation for the families of the victims and that the petitioners should wait for the final report of the Delhi government on the deaths.
However, advocate Utsav Bains, appearing for the petitioners, told the court that the division bench had asked similar litigants to take individual legal remedy.
Delhi government’s counsel Aditya P Khanna told the court that government is already considering this issue and has set up committee to investigate the reasons for the deaths. He added that he would file a detailed affidavit listing out all the steps as asked by the court.
The plea has contended that the cause of death of the patients was respiratory failure due to insufficient supply of oxygen and not comorbidities, as stated by a Delhi government committee in its report.
Hindustan Times had first reported on May 4 the findings of a committee constituted by the Delhi government to collate the data of the deaths that had taken place due to the alleged shortage of medical oxygen for the purposes of compensation. On April 27, the Delhi high court had asked the Delhi government to provide a list of the people who had died due to the shortage of oxygen.
Quoting the news report in HT, the petitioners said that they first got to know about the finding from the news report. The plea has said that there was complete inaction and failure of the city government to provide adequate supply of oxygen in spite of having knowledge that any shortage would be fatal for the life of Covid-19 patients and immediately cause their death.
It alleged that the report prepared by Delhi government’s committee is “erroneous and has been prepared to favour the Delhi government”. “..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 deceased on time. It is the case of the hospital that when the oxygen supply did not come on time the deceased were put on oxygen cylinders, however, the requisite pressure was not there and due to same, the patients died while suffocating for oxygen,” the plea read
It said that the authorities in the present case have rendered themselves not only liable to pay compensation to the families of the deceased victims but also for criminal prosecution under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The petition said that shockingly, the hospital authorities did not even inform the family members about the shortage otherwise they would have arranged for oxygen cylinders and this would have saved the life of their loved ones.
