The police here arrested four people, including two doctors, after multiple complaints against them alleged the death of several patients due to their negligence.
Those arrested were identified as Dr. Jaspreet Singh, Greater Kailash’s Agarwal Medical Centre owner Dr. Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Pooja and Mahender Singh, a former lab technician.
According to the police, Ms. Pooja and Mahender Singh treated patients without qualifying as a doctor at the clinic.
The police said the action was taken after the wife of the late Asgar Ali, a resident of Sangam Vihar, filed a complaint, alleging that her husband died following a gallbladder stone removal surgery at the clinic.
She said her husband was taken to Safdarjung Hospital after he complained of severe pain following the surgery. He was declared brought dead there.
She said the surgery was performed by Dr. Neeraj, Ms. Pooja, and Mr. Mahender.
The complainant added that Dr. Neeraj had earlier told the family that the patient would be operated on by “renowned surgeon” Dr. Jaspreet.
On the day of the surgery, they were informed that due to an emergency, the operation would be conducted by Mr. Mahender.
The complainant alleged that Ali died due to the negligence of the doctors present during the surgery, and she learned only later that Mr. Mahender and Ms. Pooja were not doctors.
It was found by a medical board constituted to probe the case that Ali had died due to a haemorrhagic shock stemming from a complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chandan Chowdhary.
While investigating the allegations against the clinic, the police found that seven other complaints, some of them dating back to 2016, had been filed at the Delhi Medical Council, which also alleged death due to negligence by staff members at the clinic.
The police also came across another case, where a patient, Jai Narayan, a resident of Garhi village in East of Kailash, died after a gallbladder stone removal surgery at the same clinic.
The online reviews left on the clinic’s page also spoke of hygiene issues, medical negligence, and allegations against “unqualified” doctors.
Over 400 signed prescription slips without any diagnosis or patient’s name, two registers containing details of patients whose medical termination of pregnancy were conducted at the centre, innumerable banned medicines, expired surgical blades, chequebooks of 47 different banks, 54 ATM cards of different banks, passbooks of different post offices and six credit card machines were recovered from the centre.
It was found that Dr. Jaspreet was involved in preparing false surgery notes, the police added.
The police have registered an FIR under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 197 (issuing or signing false certificate), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
