THE owner of a hospital, where a man had died because of its rule which asks patients to deposit cash before emergency treatment, got a breather from the Delhi High Court on Sunday.
The court ruled that Dr Chander Prakash, the owner of Ashok Vihar’s Sunderlal Jain Hospital, cannot be prosecuted under ‘ culpable homicide’ charges.
Justice Pratibha Rani quashed the charge against Prakash, who had been booked for causing death of a poor patient unable to shell out the requisite ` 25,000 in time.
The case dates back to 2001, when 30- year- old Shamshad met with a serious accident but was not admitted to Sunderlal Jain’s ICU. Shamshad’s brother Hussain had taken him to the hospital, and according to court record, was asked to deposit ` 25,000 immediately.
Malik remembers having given him ` 6,500 with a promise to get the rest in half- an- hour but the ICU doctors didn’t refused to attend to his critical brother.
According to Malik’s complaint, the doctors insisted he pay the whole amount, even mentioning that the hospital’s owner was a “ very strict man who stuck to the rules”. Malik then decided to move his brother to another hospital but he had succumbed to his injuries by then.
Prakash was arrested by the Delhi Police in 2011. An additional sessions judge later framed charges against him under Section 304 of the IPC. After considering the matter and re- examining some of the evidence, the high court concluded that the documents did not fully verify these findings. It pointed out that the casualty slip makes no mention of the inability to pay the sum and suggests the decision to shift to the other hospital might have been made to provide Shamshad with treatment meant for accident victims.
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