Murderer gets life term,docs court rap

A Delhi court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for stabbing a person to death and slammed the doctors of a government hospital for showing gross negligence in ascertaining the victim’s injury,resulting in the loss of his life. Additional Sessions Judge R K Gauba awarded the offender,Javed,the prison term and imposed a Rs 5,000 fine on him for murdering the victim,Laxman,with a knife for no particular reason on October 22,2007. Laxman had died two days later.

“It is proved that he (Javed) is the person who had picked up a quarrel with the deceased without any justification whatsoever,apparently only to make fun of him,and assaulted him in jest. He inflicted in him a wound,amongst others,by penetrating a sharp-edged instrument into his hip — cutting his muscles and other vital organs,” the court said. In its judgment,the court noted with concern that the doctors of Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital,where the victim was first taken by his family members,displayed a “negligent attitude”. The court ordered that a copy of its judgment be sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police,so he could bring it to the notice of the government officials concerned.

“The manner in which the victim was examined and treated in the hospital displays the utter callousness on the part of the medical officers. The injury,described at that stage by the doctors as merely ‘muscle deep’,was actually a very serious one. The wound turned out to be fatal in a matter of just a few hours,” the judge said,adding that the victim would have survived if he had received timely medical treatment.

The court stated that a probe into the conduct of the doctors was sorely required. “This case of gross medical negligence of such magnitude in a government hospital should not go unprobed. It is necessary that the conduct of the medical officers in question be brought to the notice of the authorities,” the court said.