The Delhi high court on Friday issued a notice on a plea which has sought Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)/Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe in the death of patients due to shortage of oxygen at Jaipur Golden Hospital.
The incident had taken place on the intervening night of April 23-24 and eight families of 21 patients has moved the court.
The high court issued notice on the plea which has also challenged the Delhi government's finding that 21 patients succumbed to co-morbidities and not due to the shortage of oxygen. Justice Rekha Palli issued notice and posted the matter for August 28.
The petition filed by 8 family members of the 21 deceased has claimed that the city government’s finding is a cover up of its failure. The plea filed through advocate Utsav Bains has also sought compensation for the families while also seeking directions to seize the CCTV footage of the hospital.
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 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.
{{/usCountry}}Quoting 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.
{{/usCountry}}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
“The observation by the committee that the patients were receiving some form of oxygen therapy has been made to mislead the court. The Committee did not examine the issue of demand and supply of oxygen to the hospital and also has not taken statements by families of victims on record,” it added.
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 at-least Highflow Oxygen Cylinders and this would have saved the life of their loved ones.
“It is submitted that most of the patients (now deceased) were recovering inasmuch as they were regularly informing their family members about improvements in their health. The deceased victims were in constant touch with their family members and were stable. However, suddenly in the intervening night of 23/24th April, 2021, the Petitioners were informed by the respondent hospital about the demise of the patients,” the petition read.