Kartik Jasu Manilal Patel, a major defendant in the Gujarat angioplasty deaths case, was placed on 10-day police remand by an Ahmedabad court on Sunday. Khyati Multispecialty Hospital is owned by Ahmedabad Bariatrics and Cosmetics Private Limited, of whom Patel is the chairman and principal investor. The hospital is at the centre of accusations that it misused the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) program by performing needless angioplasty procedures on patients, which ultimately resulted in their deaths.
After arriving in Ahmedabad on an Emirates Airlines aircraft from Dubai, Patel was taken into custody by the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Saturday at 11:45 AM. Two months after two PMJAY recipients, Nagar Moti Senma (75) and Mahesh Girdhar Barot (52) passed away at Khyati Multispecialty Hospital after needless angioplasty procedures, he was arrested. A government health insurance program called PMJAY is intended to cover hospitalization costs up to Rs 5 lakh per household per year. Following a free medical camp in their hamlet, Boricha, in the Mehsana district, which was purportedly a part of a fraudulent scam, the two men had undergone the treatments at the hospital.
Since three FIRs were filed against him on November 13, 2024, Patel had been evading capture for 66 days. He is charged with both attempt at culpable homicide and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. In a statement confirming his detention, the Gujarati government mentioned that Patel had been avoiding capture for more than two months. The prosecution requested a 14-day police remand for more investigation when he was brought before the court. However, citing the necessity for additional investigation into the case, the court ordered a 10-day remand.
Just eight days before to the deaths, on November 3, Patel departed India, according to the authorities. He first went to Sydney, Australia, then to Melbourne and New Zealand, then on November 18 he arrived in Dubai. Patel returned to India on January 17–18, just before his arrest, after the police monitored his activities.
Of the nine defendants in the case, Patel is the last to be taken into custody. According to the DCB, Patel had given the hospital unsecured loans through his other company and was in charge of all financial decisions pertaining to it. His involvement in the bogus angioplasty treatments is still being investigated.
SOURCE :
INDIAN EXPRESS
