Shailendra Pandey

Andheri

Bombay High Court

life imprisonment

Lakhan Bhaiya

MRI scan

Criticare Multispecialty Hospital

JJ Hospital committee report sayswas medically fit.A private hospital inis trouble for keeping a prisoner who didn’t have any major ailment for two years.A report sent by a team of eight JJ Hospital doctors to thesuggests that Shailendra Pandey, who is serving a sentence ofin the Ramnarayan Gupta aliasencounter case, was admitted to Criticare Hospital in Andheri (and intermittently at Criticare Hospital, Juhu) for two years after he falsely claimed to suffer from a slew of health problems.Pandey claimed he suffered from backache, a chest infection, chest pain, eye problems and abdominal pain. However, a series of tests revealed that he was medically fit and did not require hospitalisation.Pandey was serving out his life sentence when he was granted parole for a month on November 2, 2013. He got the parole extended twice, each time by a month, on pretext of an “urgent need” to get admitted to hospital for eye treatment.Pandey was admitted to Criticare Hospital on the last day of his extended parole, January 31, 2014, and remained there for two years, until January 23, 2016, when he escaped from hospital. He was absconding for 15 months. On April 25 this year, police arrested him from an airport in Mumbai.On April 20, 2017, the HC was hearing a petition filed by advocate Ramprasad Gupta, the brother of Lakhan Bhaiya, who claimed that Pandey – who was absconding then – was medically fit, and was extending his hospital stay by making up ailments. The HC pulled up the police, asking them to explain how Pandey had escaped, and why nothing had been done to trace him.The division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai asked Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 10), Vinayak Deshmukh, to probe what had led to Pandey’s escape. “It appears that police officials are hand in glove with Pandey,” the bench had observed.After his arrest on April 25, 2017, Pandey was produced in court and sent to jail. On May 12, JJ Hospital received a directive from the court to set up a team of doctors to examine Pandey and determine if he had any conditions that warranted two years of hospitalisation.A team of doctors – including a physician, a neurologist, an orthopaedic surgeon, three ophthalmologists, two radiologists and a cardiologist – examined Pandey and conducted numerous tests on him. They concluded that Pandey did not suffer from any major ailment, and had not required a long hospitalisation.“We have carried out a series of tests on him (Pandey). Hisfor the spine and hip is absolutely fine, as is his ECG. There is no indication that he suffers from a chest infection; the ECG suggests his heart is in good shape, and his blood pressure was normal,” one of the committee members said.Another doctor, who did not wish to be identified, said: “For avascular necrosis too, his case was not severe and did not require surgery. It could have been managed on an OPD basis. We generally advise physiotherapy and medicines that patients can get at home. In this case, Pandey should have asked to come to the OPD.”Dr TP Lahane, dean of the hospital, confirmed the committee’s report. “It is a court matter, and we have already submitted the report to the High Court. I can only say that our team concluded that Pandey was not suffering from any major ailment. Whatever problem he was suffering from could be treated on an OPD basis. Even for his eye surgery, we treat such cases in JJ with just a day’s hospitalisation, after which patients are released,” Lahane said.When contacted, Dr Deepak Namjoshi, medical director, of, challenged JJ Hospital’s report and denied all allegations. “On Jan 31, 2014, Pandey reached our hospital with chest pain and high blood pressure. I immediately admitted him – being a doctor, my first priority is to treat patient, not to find out whether he is criminal or a normal citizen. A few days later, we received a letter from Andheri police station asking about Pandey’s treatment, and that’s when I found out what his background was,” Namjoshi said.Pandey later complained of severe backache, Namjoshi said. “We conducted an MRI and the radiologist’s report suggests he was suffering from avascular necrosis, in which the patient has to undergo hip-replacement surgery. Pandey was not willing to undergo surgery and was in constant pain. We were monitoring him and advised physiotherapy,” he said.“It’s not that he was kept in hospital so long for one disease; he suffered from multiple problems. I have submitted all reports to Andheri police station to corroborate the facts,” Namjoshi said.When asked why Pandey was kept for two years in the private hospital, and not transferred to a government hospital as per protocol, especially since there was no court order to keep Pandey specifically at Criticare Hospital, Namjoshi said: “Why I am being held responsible for this? There were three or four occasions when we wanted to discharge him, and I wrote several letters to concerned police stations regarding this. Why did the cops not take Pandey to a government hospital? We never forced the patient to get treatment only at our hospital. For me, he (Pandey) is like any patient, who is paying every bill, so why should I bother? As a law-abiding citizen, I have submitted every report of his progress. And the police used to visit my hospital frequently to check on his status.”Lakhan Bhaiya’s brother, who had filed a writ petition in HC and a complaint with the Maharashtra medical council, said: “My only question is why wasn’t he shifted to JJ Hospital, which has a specific jail ward for prisoners? Why were no cops deployed at the hospital to guard him?”