Mumbai: Top cop assures fair probe in anxiety patient's suicide case

Sanjay Kumar

Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar has taken cognisance of mid-day's report yesterday about Ulwe resident Rochi Lawrence Elenjikar, 60, jumping to her death due to alleged harassment from Apollo Hospital in Belapur. Kumar himself met the deceased's daughter, and complainant, Shilpi, 27, and instructed his officers to seize Rochi's original suicide note to look into her allegations.

Taking cognisance
Kumar told mid-day, "I have instructed the investigating officer to seize the original note from the complainant; we have to check its authenticity. When our team had gone to the family's residence on the day of the incident [June 29], nothing was found. We have followed due process while investigating the whole matter and submitted our report to the medical council as per law.

"I met the daughter... I asked her to submit some of her mother's handwritten notes, which will help us in the forensic analysis, but the family didn't have any. So I am sending an officer to Khamla in Nagpur, which is the deceased's hometown. We will try and get it from there." Shilpi said, "After mid-day's report, I got a call from the commissioner's office on Wednesday evening. I met the commissioner in presence of other senior officers... he assured me of a fair probe in the matter; hence, I submitted the original suicide note to the investigating officer who visited... The cops also took a copy of my mother's PAN card and recorded our statements." "We seized the note in front of two panches around 8 pm on Wednesday and are investigating the matter," the investigating officer said.

Twists and turns
mid-day had reported on Wednesday that hours before Rochi had killed herself, she had had a full-blown anxiety attack and was rushed to the hospital. The hospital staff, however, had turned her away, saying the doctor was not available, without giving her any medicines either. The case came to light after the Navi Mumbai Police submitted its report in the matter to the medical council last week, more than four months following the incident.

The police had filed an accidental death report in the matter but had to investigate further owing to the family's allegations against Apollo Hospital. Shilpi had earlier alleged the police were dilly-dallying and had not conducted a proper panchnama on the day of her mother's death. "The day my mother committed suicide, the officers visited the spot for panchnama, but they did not go up to our flat, from where she'd jumped. They spoke to us downstairs and left. I was surprised to see the kind of investigation they were doing," she had said.

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