The National Human Rights Commission has directed the Delhi police commissioner and the medical superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital to submit within four weeks an Action Taken Report (ATR) on a complaint that the government and the hospital authorities colluded to cover up and withhold information about the death of veteran parliamentarian and former Union minister E. Ahamed, for “certain motivated reasons”.
The complaint was filed before the top human rights body by Indian Union Muslim League MLAs P.K. Basheer, Parakkal Abdulla and advocate Sayid Marzook Bafaki. The complainants, represented by Supreme Court advocate Haris Beeran, described the sequence of events at the hospital as “traumatic”.
Mr. Ahamed had suffered a cardiac arrest on January 31, 2017 in Parliament during the President’s address on the eve of the Budget presentation. He was rushed to the RML Hospital, where he died a few hours later.
The complaint said that shortly after Mr. Ahamed was brought to the hospital, his attendants were told by the doctors that they were not able to revive him. However, it alleged that events took a turn for the worse after the visit of Jitendra Singh, the minister-in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, to the hospital.
Shortly, after this visit, Mr. Ahamed was shifted to the ICU and entry to even his immediate relatives was barred. It alleged that the police had to intervene finally on behalf of Mr. Ahamed’s family.
“That on the death of Mr. Ahamed, his body was forcefully shifted, and machines mounted on him, even after the doctors of RML knew very well that Mr. Ahamed had passed away is beyond disgusting. The respondents colluded in hiding the dead body of Mr. Ahamed from his relatives and friends so that the same would not be able to see that he had in fact passed away earlier,” the complaint alleged.
“That on the traumatic occasion on the death of Mr. Ahamed, his family was made to suffer and not allowed to see his body, all on instructions of Union of India and cooperated fully by RML medical superintendent, is an act of gross human rights violation,” it contended.
The complaint said the sequence of events showed an absolute disregard for human dignity by the hospital.
