Vidwath Loganathan report: Mallya Hospital notice to doctor

Bengaluru: Mallya Hospital has issued a show-cause notice to its senior doctor and plastic surgeon Dr Anand and asked him to explain in a week's time why he wrote the controversial discharge summary of Vidwath Loganathan, which has drawn the ire of the High Court.

Chief Executive Officer of Mallya Hospital Commodore Indru Wadhwani told this newspaper that the ethics committee of the hospital on Saturday issued the notice to Dr Anand on the controversial discharge summary and he has been given seven days to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him.

Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar on Wednesday, while rejecting the bail plea of Mohammed Nalapad Haris, son of Shanthinagar MLA N.A. Haris, had observed that the victim Vidwath's discharge summary "appears to have been written to the convenience of the petitioner by a doctor, who is not authorised to issue it.

“It contains so many details, which ought not to be written, as the Special Public Prosecutor put it. It is true that the discharge summary appears to have been written very unusually. The discharge summary is issued to the patient at the time of his discharge from the hospital. In a medico-legal case, the investigating officer is entitled to a copy of it. Before the investigating officer could get a copy of it, if the discharge summary could be accessed by a TV channel, it only shows somebody's intervention. In my opinion, the doctor, who has issued discharge summary, appears to have exceeded his limits. It is very pertinent to mention here that the very same doctor goes to the extent of a statement about the fitness of Vidwath. He has also given a statement that Vidwath has been tutored to delay in giving statement before the police. If these statements of doctor are taken into consideration, obviously a question arises as to what is the interest he has in giving these statements? Is he expected to give such statements?" Justice Kumar had stated.

The High Court judge further stated that Vidwath's "discharge summary shows that at least three to four doctors attended on the patient. When those doctors kept quiet, why did Dr Anand show interest in giving statements and writing something in his discharge summary, which is not expected to find place in it? Whether this Dr Anand was authorised to give the discharge summary is also disputed by the SPP. All these events only show that the doctor might have been under the influence of the petitioner or his men.

This is one way of tampering with evidence," said the High Court judge. He added that any amount of explanation offered by the defence counsel was of no avail.

SPP Shyam Sundar had argued that the discharge summary is a confidential document. "How was it made available to the father of the accused - N.A.

Haris, who had posted it on his Facebook page even before it was given to the patient or the investigating officer," the SPP had argued.