145;Murder bid146; goes wrong, Ayurvedic doctor brain dead

A doctor who was not aware of a murder plot in his patient's family and gulped the medicine he prescribed to prove it was safe, is now brain dead, after being in coma for weeks.

A doctor who was not aware of a murder plot in his patient8217;s family and gulped the medicine he prescribed to prove it was safe, is now brain dead, after being in coma for weeks.

Dr P A Baiju, a physician at the Government Ayurveda Clinic in Bison Valley here, had been treating a severely arthritic housewife, Shanta, for many years. The doctor prescribed her a herbal syrup, Rasanapanchakam, when she called on him on January 24. On January 25, police sources said, Shanta8217;s neighbours and family confronted the doctor, carrying the medicine he had given her.

Shanta had fallen unconscious soon after she took it at home and was hospitalised in a critical state. The mob created a ruckus and held the doctor responsible. To convince them that the medicine was safe, Baiju took a gulp from the same bottle.

Soon after, the doctor vomited and fell unconscious and was rushed to a private hospital. He slipped into coma and was pronounced brain dead yesterday.

The police found the half used bottle of a potent insecticide in Shanta8217;s home and sent it for chemical analysis along with the leftover medicine. The report said the medicine contained the same insecticide. Police claimed that Shanta8217;s 60-year-old husband Rajappan confessed to have spiked her medicine with the insecticide because her prolonged treatment was becoming too expensive.

Later, Rajappan called on a psychiatrist claiming he had a mental problem. Police sources said he admitted to have done that to produce a certificate in court, in case he was arrested.

Rajappan was arrested on Monday and the local magistrate remanded him to custody for 14 days. Shanta is recovering at a local hospital and is reportedly out of danger.

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In his early thirties, Baiju, a self-made man from a poor family of manual labourers, and his wife Shincy, who is an Ayurvedic physician herself, have a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. Doctors treating Baiju said only a miracle could now bring him back.