HC seeks legal action from state, police against doctor for negligence in postmortem

A single-judge bench of Justice Prithviraj K Chavan on March 22 passed an order in a bail plea by Jaywant Mukund Bhoir filed through advocate Nilesh Navale. The HC had on August 8, last year had passed a direction to District Civil Surgeon, District General Hospital, Thane to constitute a committee to give an opinion on the exact cause of death of the deceased. The panel had submitted the report dated November 28, last year to the senior police inspector, Murbad Police Station and its meeting was held on September 14, that year.

Along with the investigating officer of the case, the meeting was also attended by Dr. N A Phad, the Medical Officer, who had on July 12, 2020 conducted a postmortem examinationn at Rural Hospital, Murbad. The committee had examined all the relevant documents and papers, including spot panchnama and inquest.

After perusing the report, the bench observed that Dr. Phad had given his opinion on the letterhead of his private hospital though the postmortem examination was conducted at the Government Hospital. There is no report submitted by Dr. Phad from the official record which is kept at the Government Hospital, the bench observed.

It noted that the report further revealed discrepancies in the postmortem report, including non-matching of injuries mentioned in the said report with the inquest panchnama as the same was not properly recorded, and the final cause of death was also not proper.

It observed that the form submitted by Dr. Phad to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) was improperly filled, samples of the brain of the deceased had not been forwarded and there were contradictions in the findings given in the postmortem report. The bench also noted that while the FSL report indicated that the postmortem was conducted on July 16, 2020, same was an incorrect date as it was done four days prior.

In light of this, the bench ordered, “The Secretary, Health, Government of Maharashtra as well as Commissioner of Police Thane are directed to take cognizance of the said report as well as the order passed by this Court and initiate an appropriate legal action against Dr. Phad and the concerned for such a gross negligence and illegality in conducting a postmortem of the deceased-Mohan Bhoir.”

The court asked the preliminary report from the Secretary, Health department be placed before it within four weeks and IO shall remain present on April 23, when it will hear the matter next.