Seven years after patient’s death in Chhattisgarh, police arrest four doctors for negligence

Family of young businessman seeks justice after 7 years of alleged negligence by doctors & hospital management, leading to his death.

Seven years after a young businessman succumbed during treatment at a leading private hospital in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur, the police on Friday arrested four doctors of the hospital, having booked them and the hospital management for alleged negligence causing the death.

The police confirmed the arrests of Doctors Devendra Singh, Rajeev Lochan, Manoj Rai, and Sunil Kedia. They have been granted bail on personal bonds.

On December 25, 2016, hotelier Goldie alias Gurveen Chhabra, then 28 years old, was admitted to Apollo Hospital after complaining of stomach pain. Chhabra died during treatment the following day. His family alleges that the police too have been negligent in probing the case. The “long battle for justice”, they add, saw them approaching authorities and courts for years, seeking action against the errant doctors. 

Based on the family’s allegations, and the investigation so far, the First Information Report (FIR) says the doctors and the hospital management were allegedly negligent on several counts. One of the principal allegations made by the family relates to the cause of death. 

“We were told that he had consumed poison named as Sulphas, but the post-mortem or viscera report did not establish the presence of poison in his body. We were told by the police that viscera was not needed. We pressed for forensic investigations. We then filed a writ petition in the Bilaspur High Court in 2019 in which we argued that his family had the right to know the cause of the death,” Prince Chhabra, a cousin of the deceased, said.

Hearing the petition, the court observed that the morgue inquiry made by the police had not resulted in a satisfactory and acceptable conclusion, and the Forensic Science Laboratory’s report on the examination of the deceased was contradictory. “Therefore, this case needs a preliminary inquiry to be done for the purpose of finding out the cause of death of the deceased and also for finding out whether it is a case of medical negligence,” the court noted.

“However, the FIR wasn’t registered even after that and we filed a contempt plea, which was dismissed. In 2022, after we learnt about a new report by a medical board, we filed another writ petition. On September 14 this year, the High Court granted two weeks to the State government to file an expert opinion report for the death of Gurveen, failing which the Principal Secretary (Home) was asked to be present for the next hearing. The FIR was finally registered on October 7, after which we withdrew our petition (it became infructuous),” Mr. Chhabra said.