Cops, Safdarjung face HC wrath over Covid suspect jumping to death

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the police for its "shoddy probe" into the death of a 23-year old man who was detained at IGI Airport here on March 18 last year after he arrived from Australia and died the same day after allegedly jumping from the roof of Safdarjung Hospital minutes after being admitted there.

Justice Rekha Palli also rapped the hospital for leaving the deceased unattended after he was taken to an isolation ward as he was suspected of being infected with COVID-19.

"You (hospital) need to explain what happened, how did he get away? Just because it is a government hospital, you cannot leave people unattended. Why are you taking people in, if you are allowing them to go anywhere they want?

"There has to be some care or do you leave people to go and jump from the building. Do you have no responsibility? I am not satisfied by your claim that there was no foul play," Justice Palli said.

The court directed the Medical Superintendent of the hospital to personally file an affidavit giving the exact time when the young man -- Tanvir Singh — was taken to the isolation ward, whether he was accompanied by any staff, whether any staff was present in the ward and whether there were any other patients there.

The court directed that the report be filed in three weeks by the police and listed the matter for hearing on July 7.

It said that for now it was not issuing any directions to the police and will wait for the hospital's report first.

The court, however, said, "You (police) have done a shoddy job of it (probe)."

It said the police did not try to find out who were the staff members on duty at that time, did not question the doctors and merely believed what the security guards told them.

The directions came on the plea moved by a family member of the deceased alleging that the young man was detained and then taken to the hospital without communicating any reason to his mother who was also travelling with him.

"It is also not clear from the copy of the post-mortem report as to what the medical condition of the deceased was when he was admitted into the Safdarjung Hospital," the court had said.