The Delhi High Court has taken up the mysterious case of a 23-year-old man, who had returned from Australia, had himself admitted to a hospital and died seven minutes from that.
The Court has directed the Medical Superintendent of Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital to file a comprehensive report on this unexplained death. The court wants details, including the exact timing of admission in hospital.
Justice Rekha Palli directed that the report be submitted in three weeks. The report should consider the following aspects:
• What was the exact time, as per the respondent Hospital, when late Shri Tanveer Singh was taken to the Covid isolation ward?
• How many patients were in the Covid isolation ward when late Shri Tanveer Singh was taken there?
• How many staff members were present in the Covid isolation ward to look after the patients?
• Since the Covid isolation ward was purportedly situated on the 7th floor of the respondent no 3’s building, whether any staff member had accompanied late Shri Tanveer Singh at the time he was being sent to the isolation ward?
“The Medical Superintendent is expected to examine all other relevant factors that may emerge while dealing with the aforesaid questions,” said the Delhi High Court.
The Court’s directions came after it perused the status report filed by the Safdarjung Hospital and Delhi Police in compliance of its previous orders, which had claimed that there is no evidence of foul play in the case, and that all investigations, as mandated under law, were carried out in the case of late Shri Tanveer Singh’s death as well.
Justice Rekha Palli said: “Having perused the so-called status report submitted by the Safdarjung Hospital, I have no hesitation in holding that it does not deal at all with any of the issues raised in the present petition. In fact, the report filed by the Delhi Police also shows that by way of an investigation, they only appear to have recorded the statements of three security guards posted at the Hospital on that day, who were either stationed outside the Covid ward or outside the main building of the hospital.
“In these circumstances, learned advocate for the petitioner prays that an independent inquiry be ordered to investigate the circumstances leading up to the death of late Shri Tanveer Singh,” noted the Court.
The Court has also removed the respondent no.4/Airport Authority of India and respondent no 5/Delhi International Airport, from the array of parties, after taking their submissions that as per the circular no 33 of 2003 issued by BCAS requires the CCTV footage of the concerned Airport to be preserved only for a period of one month. As a result, they do not have any CCTV footage of Shri Tanveer Singh’s detention and the events leading up to his subsequent transportation to the respondent no 3 Hospital, with them in their records.
The Court was hearing the petition pertains to the unfortunate death of a 23-year old young man, who was admittedly taken from Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi to Safdarjung Hospital upon being suspected to be a COVID-19 positive patient after arriving in Delhi from Australia on the night of March 18, 2020.
The case of the petitioner is that as per the documents obtained from the respondent no 3/Safdarjung Hospital, the deceased, late Shri Tanveer Singh, was admitted to the hospital at 9:05 pm on March 18, 2020 and expired within seven minutes at 9:12 pm. The matter will now be heard on July 7.
Source: ILNS