Apollo tried to mask Rahul's drugs: Police

Apollo Hospital tried to "mask" the presence of drugs in the body of Rahul Mahajan and "botch" up the case by tampering with records related to his admission there, the status report on the role of the private institute filed by police in a local court has alleged.

Sources quoting from the report said the hospital has claimed that Fentanyl, a drug of the nature of reformed-morphine, was administered to Rahul on his admission in the wee hours of June 1, which police believe was given to hide the presence of drugs. Though hospital authorities claimed that Fentanyl was given to Rahul as he was to be kept on ventilator, when it was administered was not mentioned in the medical records and it did not figure in the hospital bills, they said.

Experts said Fentanyl was not generally given to patients who are suspected to be poisoned with opium as it could mask the presence of drugs and their derivatives.

The report, filed in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau on July 7, is understood to have said the hospital appeared to have been "overzealous" in giving a clean chit to Rahul and issued a press statement on June 3 saying his toxic screen test was negative.

However, a day later the tests conducted by Dr Lal's Path Lab showed the presence of cocaine in his body. Police also found "overwriting" in the hospital records, changing the time of admission of Rahul and Vivek Moitra, and attempts to delay in informing the police about the incident.

The original entries in the register showed that Rahul was admitted at 2:55 am and Moitra was brought in at 3:15 am but they were later overwritten as 3:15 am and 3:55 am respectively, the report said.

Interestingly, the medico-legal certificate prepared by the hospital showed that Moitra was brought dead at 4 am, police said in the status report and claimed that the sequence of entries was not in proper order. The report said the medico-legal certificate, prepared by Dr Mukul Pandey showed that police was informed about the incident at 4 am whereas the Tughlaq Road Police Station received a call from the hospital at 5 am. The hospital records also showed that police was informed at 5 am.

There was an attempt to "cover up" the delay in informing the police, the report said. Police had earlier claimed that the medical expenses of Rahul was paid by Raji Chandru, a top official of the hospital in charge of patient care, to buttress their claim that there was connivance between the hospital authorities and those close to Mahajan.

The report went one step further and said Rahul's aide Harish Sharma had contacted Chandru before taking him to the hospital and she had in fact filled up the admission form, which was signed by Sudhanshu Mittal, a friend of the Mahajan family.

The status report was prepared after questioning 66 staff members, including several senior doctors, of the hospital for over two weeks by a special police team headed by ACP B B Choudhary.