A doctor in India’s capital, New Delhi, practicing Ayurveda, a native system of medicine, has been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by a city court for causing the death of a pregnant woman who sought his help for abortion. The incident took place two years ago.
The doctor had administered some medicines to the woman to which she reacted adversely, causing the death.According to the prosecution, the deceased, Babli had approached the private medical practitioner, Kumar for abortion. Kumar gave her some medicines, after which Babli developed itching and blisters appeared all over her body.
As her condition worsened, she was admitted at the Guru Tej Bahadur hospital at Shahdara on March 10, 2005, where she died six days later.
The post-mortem report ascertained the cause of death to be multiple organ failure due to a drug reaction.
Investigations indicted Kumar for causing the death of the woman. During the trial, he claimed he never practiced as a doctor. Rather, he was working as an insurance agent.
The court, however, admitted statement the deceased had made before the police as the dying declaration. In her dying declaration, Babli named the accused and had pointed out that after consuming the medicines given to her by the accused her condition deteriorated.
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Pronouncing the sentence, additional sessions judge, Rajendra Kumar Shastri likened the conduct of Sunil Kumar to ‘‘the brother of ‘Yamaraj’ (God of death)’’ and said, ‘‘ the convict’s misfeasance caused the young lady to die an unnatural death, depriving the members of her family of her company.’’
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