Doctors' dilemma in cover-up attempts

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Cover up operations are something the Delhi police have started specialising in. Or so it appears from the manner in which the East Delhi police have deliberately implicated a Specialist Forensic Surgeon who had given an adverse report against a cricket player desirous of playing for an under-19 team despite being over-age.

The Head of the Forensic Department at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, Dr. L.C. Gupta, paid the price for not toeing the line of police officers -- who constantly want to keep the crime rate down by showing cases of homicide (murder) of unclaimed or unidentified persons as cases of accidental death or suicide -- with being accused in a case of corruption.

The forensic expert, who had made a name in the Anju Ilyasi case, in which he had opined that ``homicide cannot be ruled out'', forcing the police to have a fresh look at the case, had in the recent past lost favour with the police as he was insisting that the police register FIRs of murder into cases of homicidal deaths of unidentified persons.

The police, however, were keen on keeping these cases under wraps to keep their crime graph in check. The East Delhi police officers finally got a chance to bring the inconvenient doctor to book this past week.

Dr. Gupta along with two other doctors, Dr. J.P. Kapoor and Dr. Anil Kumar, was entrusted the task of verifying the age of some players by the Delhi District Cricket Association through the Health Ministry and the Medical Superintendent of LBS Hospital.

As earlier this year he was part of a panel of doctors which had verified the age of the under-14 team which had won the World Cup but was subsequently deprived of the same after six students were found over-aged, the Centre had decided that the date-of-birth certificates will not be taken at face value as they were capable of being manipulated.

The new norms laid down that all players must get certificates from government hospital doctors which gave results of their dental examination, physical examination, secondary sexual examination and bone maturation and ossification tests.

Subsequently, the DDCA had approached several medical colleges for the job but they had refused to comply. Thereafter, the Delhi Health Minister, Dr. A.K. Walia, had handed over the same to LBS Hospital. As per the agreement, there was to be no external interference during the conduct of the tests.

Recently, the DDCA forwarded a list of 28 candidates in the under-14 category and 48 in the under-19 category to the hospital for examination. While one player was found over-age in the under-14 group, two were found over-age in the under-19.

The final report was submitted in a sealed packet by the panel of doctors to DDCA on October 25. In the report, the panel had declared that one of the rejected candidates, Rajat Jaiswal, had approached them for favour through the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kalyanpuri), Mr M.R. Gothowal. The other rejected candidate was found to have made factual changes by altering the year of birth in his certificate.

But rather than initiating criminal proceedings against the two, the East Delhi police tried to shield them. Jaiswal's father allegedly went to the LBS Hospital mortuary at about 2 p.m. on October 26 and threatened Dr. Gupta, accusing him of spoiling his son's career.

A complaint was later lodged by Dr. Gupta through the Medical Superintendent against Jaiswal and an FIR (No. 401) was registered under sections 186, 353 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code by the police.

However, as the Medical Superintendent later complained to the Delhi Home Secretary, Health Secretary and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East District), as an afterthought, the Kalyanpuri police also registered a case under Section 161 of the IPC and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Dr. Gupta on the complaint of Jaiswal.

In this case (FIR No. 402), Jaiswal had complained that he was called on October 26 by Dr. Gupta who had asked him to bring ``something'', but when he went and offered Rs 5,000, the doctor threw away the money and told him that the job was worth Rs 20,000.

This case was registered by the police without any proof of demand or acceptance of money and without any recovery of the same from the doctor. Again while such cases are generally handled by the Anti Corruption Branch of either the Delhi Government or the Central Bureau of Investigation, the police, for obvious reasons proceeded with the case on its own.

An intriguing aspect of this case is that the FIR was registered on October 26 after the under-19 team had already left for a tournament in Pune.

The worrying aspect, however, is not the manner in which the police took sides with an accused party or its eagerness to keep the crime rate in check through non-registration of cases. Rather the pressing issue is the future of the sports teams which now require medical verification from doctors.

After Dr. Gupta's case, it is unlikely that other doctors would show their eagerness in carrying out such tests. And this is likely to lead to more humiliations like the under-14 World Cup winning team faced recently.

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