HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE A. GOPAL REDDY AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.26008 OF 2006 & CONTEMPT CASE No.1290 OF 2007 DATE: 04.02.2008 WRIT PETITION No.26008 OF 2006 Between: Smt. Sunitha ..... PETITIONER AND The Station House Officer, Dabeerpura Police Station, Hyderabad & 4 others. .....RESPONDENTS CONTEMPT CASE No.1290 OF 2007 Between: IN RE ..... PETITIONER AND Vazir Khan, Station House Officer, Dabeerpura Police Station, Hyderabad. ....RESPONDENT HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE A. GOPAL REDDY AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.26008 OF 2006 & CONTEMPT CASE No.1290 OF 2007 COMMON ORDER: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao) Smt. Sunitha, a resident of Farhat Nagar, Dabeerpura, Hyderabad has sent a written representation to the Hon’ble Chief Justice on 8.12.2006 which has been treated and taken up as a writ petition. In her complaint, Smt. Sunitha alleged that her niece Kum.Madhu @ Madhuri, aged about 15 years was brutally assaulted with iron rods and cricket bats by some culprits and she also named a few of them. The incident is alleged to have taken place on 11.10.2006 and the complainant further alleged that Ms.Madhuri ultimately succumbed to the injuries, but instead of investigating into the said murder, attempts were made by the staff of the Osmania General Hospital as well as the local police to cover up her death by projecting the same to have occasioned due to natural causes, attributable to dengue fever. In view of the seriousness of the allegations contained in the representation submitted by Smt. Sunitha, the Station House Officer, Dabeerpura Police Station, Hyderabad, the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, the D.G.P. of State Government as well as the District Collector, Hyderabad were all put on notice. In response to the notice issued and certain directions issued by this Court, the matter has been entrusted to a senior level officer namely; Sri P.Umapathi, I.P.S., Superintendent of Police, C.I.D., (Cyberabad RCIU), Hyderabad to investigate and to submit a detailed report in the matter. Accordingly, Sri Umapathi had conducted a very detailed enquiry into the matter and submitted his report to the Additional Director General of Police, C.I.D., Hyderabad on 01.06.2007. In the course of investigation, Sri Umapathi had contacted the Doctors, who treated Ms. Madhuri, the nursing staff and other paramedical staff of the Osmania General Hospital apart from enquiring from the respectable people in the locality. Sri Umapathi had also examined the records maintained by the police at Dabeerpura Police Station. The investigation carried out by Sri Umapathi revealed that the patient Ms.Madhuri had been admitted to the Osmania General Hospital on 11.10.2006 with high fever and other related complications. Smt. Saroja got her admitted at the Osmania General Hospital. Ms. Madhuri had been treated for dengue fever and she started responding initially to the treatment. The doctors have found no external injuries on her person. Since the patient had a history of a fall from a height of 10 feet ladder, the doctors have got done X-ray of her pelvis, and right leg knee joint to rule out any possibility of fractures on her body. The X-ray examination revealed no bony injuries. She had been treated in the Acute Medical Care of the hospital and in fact on 23.10.2006, Ms. Madhuri was subjected to C.T. Scan of brain as she became unconscious and started bleeding per nose and vagina. The examination has not shown any external injuries to her head. Ultimately, the patient died on the next day i.e. on 24.10.2006. Thus, between 11.10.2006 to 24.10.2006 the patient had received possibly the best medical attention and in spite of the same, she has died, obviously, due to natural causes and the possibility of dengue fever being the causative factor is not ruled out. But, however, it will be important to notice at this stage that to rule out any possibility of cover up or any lack of investigative zeal on the part of Dabeerpura Police in investigating the case properly, upon further directions by this Court, another senior officer namely; Smt. Bhavna Saxena, I.P.S., Superintendent of Police, has re-investigated the entire matter. In fact, she had also ensured that the discrepancies noticed in the post-mortem examination carried out on the dead body of Ms. Madhuri are reconciled and for that purpose, she got a medical board constituted. It was headed by a Professor of Medicine of the Gandhi Medical College and comprising of two forensic science experts drawn one each from Gandhi Medical College and Osmania Medical College. They have examined the entire report all over again and have unanimously come to the conclusion that the patient had died due to the causative factors of dengue fever, which have been mistaken while the post-mortem examination was conducted by a tutor in the forensic department of the Osmania Hospital to be the result of a head injury. Smt. Bhavna Saxena had filed a detailed report pointing out that the material on record would unerringly indicate the correctness of the treatment meted out to the patient between 11.10.2006 to 23.10.2006 at the Osmania General Hospital and the progress the patient initially made, but however, she could not recover from the cerebral hemorrhage suffered by her because of the dengue fever. The medical board constituted for the purpose of sorting out the discrepancy have also endorsed the medical opinion that the symptoms of dengue fever can cause cerebral hemorrhage and therefore, they have also examined the appropriateness of the treatment meted out to the patient during her hospitalization between 11.10.2006 to 23.10.2006 and found the death of Ms.Madhuri purely as a natural consequence to the disease rather than to any external causative factors such as injuries. Therefore, it is suggested that no further action with regard to the complaint be entertained. It was also revealed that the Tutor in Forensic Science Department who conducted the Post-Mortem Examination ddi not take care to consult the case sheet of the patient. However, during the process of hearing of this case, this Court had an occasion to notice that the Station House Officer, Dabeerpura Police Station had not set out the complete details of all the facts relating to the case and consequently an impression has been left by him that he was seeking to mislead this court and he is making an attempt to prevent this Court from getting at complete truth. In those set of circumstances, a notice has been issued as to why contempt of Court action be not initiated against him suo motu. In response thereto, an affidavit has been filed by the officer concerned and he has also realized the error of judgment on his part in not disclosing the complete data and details of facts and he has tendered an unconditional apology for the error of judgment in this regard. Sri G.Vidya Sagar, the learned senior counsel appearing for the contemnor has also contended that it is an unintended lapse on the part of the officer and he regrets very much to have allowed an improper impression about the style of functioning of the officer left by him in the mind of this Court. Sri G.Vidya Sagar, learned counsel assured this Court that henceforth the officer would be more careful and cautious while dealing with matters of this nature in particular and while deposing in Courts in general. In view of all these developments, we consider it appropriate not to proceed any further with the notice issued suo motu and we accordingly drop all further action. Since we are satisfied that Ms. Madhuri had met with death wholly due to natural causative factors, no further action is need to be taken in this regard. Hence, the writ petition is dismissed, but however, without costs. ________________ A. GOPAL REDDY, J. _______________________ NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO,J. 04.02.2008 tsr