Dr Gilada8217;s bail plea rejected

MUMBAI, May 3: Additional Sessions Judge R Y Ganoo today rejected the bail application of Dr I S Gilada, Secretary-General of the Indian ...

MUMBAI, May 3: Additional Sessions Judge R Y Ganoo today rejected the bail application of Dr I S Gilada, Secretary-General of the Indian Health organisation IHO. Dr Gilada, who has been accused of causing the death of an HIV patient by negligence, was arrested by the Agripada police on April 23 and is currently in custody.

According to the First Information Report filed by the police, Gilada and two doctors administered a BIV vaccine 8211; supplied to Gilada by US-based doctors Professor Pierre Emanuel De Gaspa and Dr Bairab Bhattacharya 8211; to ten patients without their knowledge. The patients were allegedly told that they were being given a medicine which could cure them of AIDS. Some of the patients later died, but the FIR doesn8217;t put a number to the deaths.

One of the patients moved Bombay High Court in 1994, but died while the case was being heard. His sister, Ranjana Rajput, is now pursuing the case.

Special Public Prosecutor Vidya Kasle told the court that the very name IHO is misleading. Theorganisation is housed in a municipal school which in turn is located in the premises of JJ Hospital. This, she argued, may give the impression that the organisation is run by the government or the municipal corporation.

Kasle also cited a Bombay High Court judgement in 1996 whereby directions were issued to the Charity Commissioner to change IHO8217;s name, since it misrepresented the public. The charity commissioner had then directed IHO to change its name to People8217;s Health Organisation, but IHO moved the Supreme Court and obtained a stay on the change of name.

Counsel for Dr Gilada, Niteen Pradhan, argued that Section 170 personating a public servant, one of the offences for which Gilada has been booked, is bailable. This section has been wrongly applied as nowhere in the complaint has it been stated that IHO is a government organisation or that the patient was misled, Pradhan stated. Dr Gilada had disassociated himself from the case by April 9, 1994 itself, whereas the deceased was administered thevaccine on April 12, 1994. Dr Gilada is merely associated with the IHO and had let out the organisation8217;s premises for treating the patient, stated Pradhan.

Judge Ganoo ruled it will not be proper to grant bail to Gilada as investigations will be hampered.