KOLKATA: On a day T Karunakar, vice-president (HR) of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, was questioned at the Phoolbagan police station, the police confirmed the registering of a case against the Ekbalpore-based CMRI Hospital for "neglecting an accident victim ".Karunakar, who was served a notice about 48 hours ago, arrived at the police station around Wednesday noon, after flying into the city from Chennai. "We wanted to know if there was any stated policy under which the hospital authorities could ask for fixed deposit certificates if a patient's family failed to clear bills. Karunakar was also asked to explain the hospital's command structure and how the headquarters monitored the functioning of its divisional units," said a senior police officer. The Apollo vice-president was questioned by the investigating officer, the additional OC of Phoolbagan police station and his team, comprising officers from Lalbazar.The inquiry is being held over the death of an accident victim, Sanjay Roy, who was treated at Apollo for around eight days till his family decided to shift him to SSKM Hospital, apparently unable to pay the bills any more. Though they sought Roy's discharge, Apollo allegedly did not let him go till the family cleared the entire bill, running into several lakhs. The family claimed they had to submit FD papers to get Roy discharged and could admit him to SSKM hours after the bed there was ready. Roy died within hours of being taken to SSKM.The police said they had identified at least three Apollo doctors and a couple of senior non-medical officials, who could be questioned again. So far, the top leadership at the Kolkata hospital, along with 16 doctors, have been examined by the police.A police officer pointed out they had found charges under two heads-Rs to initiate archiving Roy's medical history and Rs 1,650 for informing the Phoolbagan police that it was a medico-legal case-were introduced to Roy's bill, reportedly flouting the charging patterns. The police also found separate charges had been extracted from the patient's family for using the intercom facility.None of the Apollo officials, however, responded to calls made.The Bhowanipore police on Wednesday also registered a case of cheating against an unidentified person, who allegedly conned a patient's family out of Rs 20,000 at SSKM Hospital by posing as an employee, who helped the doctor inside the operation theatre. The incident took place around 8pm on March14.

Stay updated with all the Kolkata Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.