Mumbai court rejects anticipatory bail plea of patient’s kin in KEM Hospital staff assault case

Mumbai: Observing that the sanctity of the hospital premises, where thousands of people require treatment in peaceful condition, will vanish if the culprits are allowed to use violence, a sessions court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of four relatives of a deceased patient who allegedly assaulted a nurse and security staff at KEM Hospital last month.Additional sessions judge Y P Manathkar noted that the incident could not be treated like an ordinary assault because it occurred inside a hospital and targeted staff performing duties. “Keeping aside the nature of the injury and the seriousness of the assault, the incident of beating of the nurse on the premises of the hospital by the relatives of the deceased cannot be viewed leniently in such a situation,” the judge said.The order also said that there was no material before the court at that stage to attribute the death to medical negligence, stating, “As on today, there is no document or the evidence in the form of medical papers before me to hold that the death of Ganesh Kolekar was a result of utter medical negligence by the doctors and nursing staff of KEM Hospital.”Bhoiwada police had booked Baliram Sawant, Manik Sawant, Gayabai Sawant, and Babasaheb Jadhav in the case. The prosecution submitted that nurse Tejaswini Patil was on night duty, when Kolekar, admitted for a liver ailment, became unconscious around 1am on April 28. The doctor examined him, administered an injection, and placed him on a ventilator. Kolekar’s mother Shantabai was informed about his death around 2am.According to the prosecution, relatives of the deceased arrived in Ward No 41 around 5am and began quarrelling with Patil and others over the death. It was further alleged that Gayabai and another woman beat Patil, and when security personnel Sunita Salunkhe, Balaji Munde, and Balasaheb Basre intervened, Baliram and Babasaheb assaulted them.The defence sought relief and submitted that the offences under the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Preventions of Violence And Damage Or Loss To Property) Act carried punishment not exceeding three years, and claimed that the police action was driven by pressure from hospital staff.The prosecution opposed the plea, pointing to medical papers and CCTV footage, and argued that granting protection in such incidents would encourage attacks on hospital staff after adverse outcomes.Rejecting the argument that anticipatory bail should follow because no recovery was required, the judge said, “It is settled that an anticipatory bail is not a pre-rogatory right of the accused only because police do not require anything to be recovered from the accused.”The order added, “Ultimately, it is the seriousness of the crime and the impact made by it upon social fabrication that governs the principles of granting anticipatory bail.”