Rebecca SomervellMumbai: In a trial that lasted 15 years, a magistrate court this week acquitted a Bhiwandi doctor accused of fabricating a breast cancer diagnosis. Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) Letterhead for a woman who sought treatment after having a tumor removed.Based on the pathology report, Devaki Pujari and the treating doctors believed that the woman was suffering from a serious fatal disease, but the document was later flagged as a complete forgery.Devaki was not examined as a prosecution witness. As a result, in a 13-page judgment the court acquitted Dr Arshad Shaikh, a lab owner, of multiple charges including fraud and forgery. The court found that the prosecution failed to prove that the laboratory owner actually handled the woman’s breast tumor or created fake medical records for financial gain. “The prosecution will not be in a position to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused himself conducted the pathological examination of Devaki’s breast tumor and, accordingly, issued the fabricated pathological report. As a result, the accused will have to be acquitted by giving the benefit of reasonable doubt,” said Judicial Magistrate First Class PS Shinde.An FIR was lodged at Bhoiwada police station in 2010. The patient’s ordeal began in late 2009, when a tumor was surgically removed and sent off for pathological examination. Prosecutors alleged that instead of actually testing the tumor, Shaikh kept the diagnosis fee and prepared a fake breast cancer diagnosis on September 12, 2009. Police claimed that the doctor fraudulently scanned Tata Memorial Hospital letterhead and combined the diagnosis data of two genuine cancer patients to create a fabricated document, with the aim of dishonestly tricking the woman and the doctors into believing that the tumor had been officially diagnosed.During a confrontation by the vigilance department at the hospital on March 15, 2010, Shaikh reportedly admitted to hospital security and administrators that the report was made on a computer.The prosecution questioned Devaki’s son Rajesh Pujari. He said that after the initial diagnosis by his family doctor, he took his mother to Dr. Harish’s hospital for further treatment. Dr. Harish recommended a mammogram and upon reviewing the results, referred the patient to another doctor. That doctor later removed a tumor and sent the tissue sample for testing to Maxim Lab in Kalyan, a facility owned by the accused.The alleged fraud came to light months later when the woman was referred to TMH, Parel for radiation. Upon examining the patient, a doctor at the hospital found that the physical symptoms did not completely match the serious fatal disease mentioned in the pathology report. The hospital’s internal investigation revealed that the demands and case numbers on the woman’s documents actually belonged to two other patients, and no valid record existed for Devaki in the hospital’s system.Twenty days later, the accused sent Devaki’s lab reports to the surgeon, who started chemotherapy and later referred her to TMH for advanced care, including radiation. However, when Rajesh went with his mother to consult the doctor at TMH, the doctors there found discrepancies in the lab reports.During the trial, the defense argued against the prosecution’s timeline and motive. During cross-examination by the defense counsel, Rajesh admitted that the tumor was sent to the laboratory by the surgeon and that he had never met the accused before the alleged incident. He also admitted that the said report was sent to the hospital by Dr. Harish.Referring to this, the Magistrate said that in such circumstances, the prosecution is duty bound to examine Dr. Harish to prove the connection between the removal of the tumor by him and its pathological examination by the accused. “But, the charge sheet shows that no such statement of Dr Harish has been recorded by the investigating officer. Therefore, this lacuna goes to the crux of the matter and raises doubts as to whether any such tumor of Devaki was sent to the laboratory of the accused,” the magistrate said.The magistrate found serious lapses in the police investigation, primarily noting that they did not record the statement of the woman who was suffering from cancer. Furthermore, the physical slides produced during the interrogation at the hospital were never sent for DNA testing to prove that they originated from the woman’s tumor.Addressing the lack of digital evidence required to prove forgery and fraudulent motive, the magistrate said the investigating officers failed to seize the computers allegedly used to morph the hospital letterheads.
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