NIA quizzes doctor after misinterpreting message

Delhi cardiologist Upendra Kaul, who has been treating Yaseen Malik for various cardiac ailments for two decades, was called by National Investigation Agency for an explanation on Malik’s documents.

National Investigative Agency (NIA) examined Dr Upendra Kaul, one of India’s top cardiologists, after it incorrectly interpreted a message from Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik about blood thinners.

Yasin Malik was under Dr. Kaul’s treatment for his cardiac ailments. (HT FILE)

A text message from Malik to Dr Kaul, who has in the past treated him for a cardiac ailment, said, “blood Report Value INR 2.78.” The agency mistook it as a reference to Indian rupees.

“In medical terminology, however, INR stands for Internationalised Normalised Ratio. The NIA interpreted INR as Indian rupees, and so, assumed ₹2.78 crore in hawala money,” Dr Kaul told HT. “They [NIA investigators] could have done some homework.”

Malik was brought to Dr Kaul for treatment by one of the security agencies in the 1990s.

He said he told NIA that Malik had been his patient, consulted him for heart trouble, and the entry in the documents pertained to that. Malik is in Tihar Jail in judicial custody in two cases, including one related to terror funding.

Kaul has been critical of the Centre for revoking J&K’s special status and the communications clampdown that followed, leading many on social media to speculate that the NIA action could have been a result of that.

NIA is probing a case related to terror funding of various groups, and is examining messages exchanged by Malik with various people over a period of time.

A senior NIA official, who did not want to be named, said: “We are checking everyone. We have perused volumes of documents, going into every minute detail to be sure of the facts which have to finally undergo legal scrutiny in a court of law.”