Court discharges doctor accused in 17-year-old egg donor’s death
The case dates back to 2010, when Sushma Pandey, a scrapyard worker, died after she was rushed to civic-run Rajawadi Hospital, with complaints of abdominal pain, three days after she had donated eggs.
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The police had opposed the discharge plea stating that procedure was not followed to ascertain Pandey's age, which was below 18 years, or to check if she is psychologically capable to undergo the procedure. (Representational photo)STATING THAT there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against him, a sessions court, in a recent order, discharged a doctor accused in a case of a 17-year-old egg donor’s death in 2010. The court also noted that the investigation in the case was not up to the mark.
The court discharged Dr Gautam Allahabadia, a gynaecologist, who runs a fertility clinic in Bandra, and was named in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police in 2015. “… in the overall view of the matter, I find that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against the applicant-accused Dr Gautam Allahabadia,” additional sessions judge V M Pathade said in the order on September 2.
The case dates back to 2010, when Sushma Pandey, a scrapyard worker, died after she was rushed to civic-run Rajawadi Hospital, with complaints of abdominal pain, three days after she had donated eggs. The police had claimed that the procedure was done at Bandra-based ‘Rotunda-The Centre for Human Reproduction’ for the third time. The police had alleged that this was in violation of the Assisted Reproductive (Regulations) Bill and Rules as well as the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines, which fixed the age for a person donating eggs to be between 18 and 35.
Allahabadia through his lawyer Priyanka Dubey had submitted before the court that Pandey had submitted a PAN card, which stated that her age was 19/20 years of age and that her name was Sushma Dubey. The PAN card was later found to be bogus.
The lawyer said that there was no mechanism at the clinic to determine the age or name of the patient, or to verify if a document submitted is genuine, and that the hospital acts upon the statement made by the patient or their relative along with supporting documents.
Allahabadia had also cited a report of a panel of doctors of state-run J J Hospital, issued on December 9, 2013, claiming that there is no evidence to suggest that there was medical negligence by doctors of Rotunda Hospital. The doctor also submitted that the expert committee reports of the J J Hospital claim that the death was caused due to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a known remote complication of the process of egg donation. It was submitted that Pandey or her relatives had not come to the hospital when she had pain, hence it could not be said to be medical negligence.
Allahabadia also cited other co-accused being discharged in the case, including doctors at the clinic.
The police had opposed the discharge plea stating that procedure was not followed to ascertain Pandey’s age, which was below 18 years, or to check if she is psychologically capable to undergo the procedure.
The court said that there is no clarity in the investigation about where Pandey was after she left the clinic on August 8, 2010 around 4 pm, or what had happened to the Rs 25,000 paid to her in a cheque after the process, and the injuries received by her, as seen in the post mortem. “After having perused the material available on record, it is prima facie apparent that the investigation conducted in this case is not up to the mark,” the court said.
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