Girl blindness case: Court refuses relief to doctor

A local court has rejected a doctor's plea to grant him relief in the case, which the parents of a minor girl had filed against him alleging that their daughter had turned blind due to the negligence of the doctor.
District and Sessions Judge D V Thakre on Monday rejected doctor Sanjeev Joshi's petition to grant him relief under section 258 of CrPC.
As per the case history, in 2012, Sujit Rai, from Waghapur village on the outskirts of the city, had admitted his wife Roshni to a local private hospital, where she delivered a premature baby girl later named by them as Bhumika. She was sent to Chirayu Child Criticare run by Dr Sanjeev Joshi.

In his police complaint Rai alleged that they noticed the girl's eyes turning red and reported the matter to Dr Joshi. But, he ignored it and treated the child with some drugs. However, within a month, her eyes turned white and a local ophthalmologist said the child had lost sight in one eye and the infection had spread to the other eye. Experts at Chennai, Hyderabad and Nashik expressed their inability in restoring her lost eyesight.
The parents then approached the district consumers grievances redressal forum with a complaint against the doctor which was challenged by the latter before the National Commission, which in turn ordered the forum to hear the complaint on a day to day basis and pass an order within three months time.

Complying with the Commission order, the forum passed an order against the erring doctor and asked him to pay the compensation to the tune of about Rs 20 lakh to the girl.

Rai then lodged a complaint with local police, who then registered an FIR against the doctor under section 338 of IPC before the court.
On December 16, 2014, the court ordered the Wadgaon Road Police to reinvestigate the case.
However, Joshi had filed a petition under section 258 of CrPC requesting the court to absolve him from the legal proceedings and the demand to pay compensation to the three-year old girl.

However, the court has, after hearing both parties, rejected the plea of the doctor.