STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Police on Sunday arrested four persons in connection with their alleged involvement in supplying a duplicate pacemaker part to conduct a heart surgery at the GMCH (Gauhati Medical College and Hospital) on Saturday.
Those arrested are Bibhash Patowary (51), owner of Radali Drugs, Jahangir Hussain (42), manager of Radali Drugs, Purna Ram Deka (43), in-charge owner-cum-manager of Zenifar Medicos and Govind Poddar (35), supplier of RGS Associates. All of them were produced before the court on Sunday and they were remanded to judicial custody.
In a bizarre incident, a duplicate pacemaker part was detected in the operation theatre at the GMCH on Saturday. The Superintendent of the GMCH lodged an FIR with them (Bhangagarh Police Station) on Saturday in this regard.
The FIR alleged the sale of duplicate temporary pacemaker leads by M/s Radali Drugs located at the GMCH Complex.
According to the police, it took a long time for the doctors and other staffers in the operation theatre to prepare the temporary pacemaker for placing it on a patient on Saturday. When they could not prepare it for placing it to the patient, they checked its parts thoroughly and found that the leads were duplicate ones, the police said.
"Soon the doctors asked the attendants of the patient as to where they bought the leads from. The attendants then named M/s Radali Drugs," the police said.
GMCH Principal Dr Achyut Baishya said that he informed the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of the incident as and when he was reported on it by the doctors concerned. At the instruction of the ACP, Bhangagarh Police registered a case (312/21 u/s 275/406/420 IPC) to that effect and started an investigation.