Court hands three accused in physical remand over woman’s death

Ismat was administered an injection at a govt hospital on Thursday that allegedly caused her death

KARACHI: A local court handed over on Saturday three accused to the police for two-day physical remand in the case pertaining to the death of a 25-year-old woman due to hospital's negligence. The doctor who prescribed the injection is still on the run, however, the police are conducting raids to arrest him.

The investigation police produced the accused compounders, Shahzaib, Amir and Muhammad Ali, before the judicial magistrate in Karachi city court. The investigation officer (IO) requested 14-day remand of the accused.

According to police, the deceased woman, Ismat, daughter of Babu, was administered a poisonous injection at a government hospital in Korangi no 5.

Ismat visited the hospital on Thursday complaining about tooth-ache. The doctor on duty, Dr Ayaz, wrote a prescription of injection and handed it over to the compounder, Shahzaib.  Ismat's condition deteriorated as soon as the compounder administered the injection. She was immediately shifted to an emergency ward on a stretcher but upon examination, the doctors confirmed that she had died.

During investigation Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) lady Medico-Legal Officer (MLO) Dr Zakia Khursheed revealed that no traces of torture were found on her body. The post-mortem report will be available in a week while the DNA report will help in understanding what actually happened, she added.



 

Police sources said that during interrogation Shahzaib revealed Ismat sat in the doctor's room for a long time and then came to him so that she could be administered the injection. The moment he injected her, Ismat's condition deteriorated. Shahzaib added that they immediately took her to the emergency ward where the doctors declared that she had died.

Shahzaib said that when we went back to Dr Ayaz's room he had left. He said that this kind of incident has never occurred before and added that it seems that the injection prescribed by Dr Ayaz caused Ismat's death.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the deceased's cousin, Jehangir Ahmed, said that from the first day they suspected that other staff members of the hospital were also involved in this incident. He said that the people who informed them of Ismat's condition were also absent from the hospital premises later. "We knew that something is wrong," he said adding that the other staff members were hesitant to say anything when the family inquired about the people who informed them about Ismat. "This was the reason we started protesting outside the hospital," said Ahmed.

He further said that other sections should also be included in the case and such people should be hanged to death publicly. He demanded that the other accused should be arrested and punished.

Awami Colony Police Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) Khalid Kharal told The Express Tribune that three accused have been arrested and their physical remand has been acquired.

He said that the post-mortem and DNA reports would confirm if deceased Ismat was tortured in any way or not and other penal sections should be included in the case or not.

The police official said that Shahzaib had given contradictory statements during the interrogation. Sometimes he says that he knew that Ismat was being given a poisonous injection and sometimes he says that he didn't know about it.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2019.