SC rejects claim that judge Loya's ECG not done at Dande hospital

The Supreme Court today rejected the claim of activist- lawyer Prashant Bhushan that no electrocardiogram (ECG) of judge B H Loya was conducted at Nagpur's Dande hospital, where he was initially taken for treatment after he complained of chest pain.

The apex court said that the mention of an ECG in the progress notes of the doctor at Meditrina hospital, where he was taken later, indicated that the procedure was carried out at Dande hospital.

It rejected the submission of Bhushan, who sought an independent probe into the death of Loya that no ECG was done at Dande hospital where the judge was taken by four judges --Shrikant Kulkarni, S M Modak, V C Barde and Roopesh Rathi -- for medical assistance after he complained of chest pain.

"The death summary specifically adverts to the fact that the patient was taken to Dande hospital earlier where an ECG was done. Dr Dande has made the same statement. The progress notes also note a tall T' in the anterior lead which indicates that the ECG was seen by the doctors attending to Judge Loya at Meditrina hospital," the court said.

"These progress notes are contemporaneous, since they also form part of the communication addressed by Dr N B Gawande at Meditrina to the PSI at Sitabardi on the same day after the judge had been brought dead to the hospital," it said.

"As a matter of fact, it is this very ECG which forms the subject matter of the submissions which have been urged by one of the intervenors, for whom advocate Prashant Bhushan appears. Having regard to the fact that the ECG has been specifically mentioned in the progress notes of the doctor at Meditrina hospital, we find no reasonable basis to infer that no ECG was done at Dande hospital," a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said.

While seeking an independent probe, Bhushan had relied on the statement of judge Rathi who had said that the nodes of the ECG machine at Dande hospital were not working and no ECG was done at the hospital.