Five doctors summoned to Delhi court in 2012 infant death case

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Agrawal summoned four doctors of two different private hospitals and the medical superintendent of one of the government hospital in East Delhi district under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

A Delhi court has summoned five doctors for their alleged negligence which led to the death of a 10-month-old baby in 2012.

The court noted that the Medical Council of India (MCI) had also ordered the removal of their names from its register for three months. (Representative image)

The court noted that the Medical Council of India (MCI) had also ordered the removal of their names from its register for three months.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Agrawal summoned four doctors of two different private hospitals and the medical superintendent of one of the government hospital in East Delhi district under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court issued summons based on a complaint filed by the toddler’s mother, Renu Tyagi, who had alleged that her child died due to the negligence of the doctors.

The court also pulled up police officers probing the case for not taking into consideration the ethics committee report, which had clearly directed that names of the guilty doctors be removed from the Medical Council of India ’s register for a period of three months.

“I am at pain to observe that despite the loss of a precious human life, the then concerned officer remained in a state of inertia for the reasons best known to him and chose to sit over the said report of the ethics committee,” he said.

The Delhi court also directed that the matter be brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner of police, east district, asking him to fix responsibility on the erring officials and taking appropriate remedial action.

According to the complaint filed by the toddler’s mother, her child was admitted to a private hospital in Shahdara on November 28, 2012.

However, the hospital administration later asked her to shift her son to another hospital in Preet Vihar as it could not give the child proper treatment.

The child was then admitted to the hospital in Preet Vihar the next day, where during the course of treatment, the child’s health started deteriorating, the complainant said. She added that the hospital charged her₹3.5 lakh.

During the course of treatment, when Renu Tyagi went in the ICU, she was shocked to see that ants were running over her child’s face, the complaint stated.

When she confronted the doctors about it, she was told that “our job is to treat and not to remove ants”, it added.