The Hindu : Front Page : Charges absurd, says Apollo Chairman

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 15, 2006

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Charges absurd, says Apollo Chairman

New Delhi: Refuting the allegations of tampering with evidence and misleading the investigation in the Rahul Mahajan case, the Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, Pratap C. Reddy, said it was absurd that so much falsehood should be provided to misguide the public and the media instead of appreciating the efforts of the doctors of Apollo who saved a life,

"In an emergency situation, administrative details are secondary to saving lives and just to set the record straight, there is absolutely nothing that was fudged at the hospital, " he said in a statement. The medico-legal register had no confusion at all and the samples were handed over to the police as soon as they came. The hospital had cooperated with the police and six of the top doctors had spent two days answering repetitive questions.

By way of abundant caution and to be absolutely sure, it was the hospital's choice to send the samples to an independent laboratory for analysis.

The hospital's first priority, as suggested by the highest court of the land, was to stabilise any critical patient who came to it, and then give attention to processes and procedures, and that was precisely what Apollo had done. "It is indeed a sad day for the complete medical fraternity of the country when members of their group are being traumatised as a result of ongoing witch hunting, " Dr. Reddy said.

Police charge

PTI reports:

Faced with a court deadline to file a status report on investigation against Apollo Hospital, police on Wednesday said they had ``ample evidence'' to prove that ``tampering'' was done at the highest level to botch up the Rahul Mahajan case.

Police sources said ``there is ample evidence to show that the hospital wiped off evidence during the nearly two hour gap they got between Rahul's admission to the hospital and when the police were informed.

``We are also planning to question Apollo head Pratap Reddy and his aide Raji Chandru in the next couple of days,'' they said.

The sources said they also have evidence to prove that Pramod Mahajan's aide Harish Sharma, Dr. Reddy and Ms. Chandru made several calls to each other in the intervening night of June 1 and 2 between 2.55 a.m., when Rahul was brought in, and 5 a.m., when police were informed about his admission and the death of Bibek Moitra, personal secretary of Pramod Mahajan.

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