Covid Centre dean Dr Dere arrested for running over 60-year-old on Sion Hospital premises

Dr Dere, who is presently the head of the forensic department at LTMG Sion Hospital, was the nodal coordinator for all jumbo Covid-19 centres. He was a popular name during the Covid-19 pandemic, as he was made the dean of the BKC jumbo centre and played a key role in its setting up and day-to-day functioning

MUMBAI: A 60-year-old woman was allegedly run over on the Sion Hospital premises by an SUV driven by a well-known doctor of the hospital. She died later in hospital. Dr Rajesh Dere was arrested on Saturday night after being questioned by the police.

Covid Centre dean Dr Dere arrested for running over 60-year-old on Sion Hospital premises

Despite the incident taking place on Friday evening, the Sion police registered an FIR only around 24 hours later and were yet to conduct a medical test of the accused doctor. The police blamed the accused and the hospital for concealing information about the accident from them. They claimed that they found out about the death of the woman only after their probe.

Dr Dere, who is presently the head of the forensic department at LTMG Sion Hospital, was the nodal coordinator for all jumbo Covid-19 centres. He was a popular name during the Covid-19 pandemic, as he was made the dean of the BKC jumbo centre and played a key role in its setting up and day-to-day functioning.

The doctor, who was questioned by the police late on Saturday night, claimed that he did not flee from the spot but took the woman to hospital. “She died due to cardiogenic shock and the hospital reports state this,” he said on Saturday evening before he was detained by the police.

According to the Sion police, the deceased Zubeida Shaikh, a resident of Mumbra, had gone to Sion Hospital for treatment for a wound that was not healing on account of diabetic complications. “She was initially admitted to the hospital—after she was discharged, she had to visit daily to change her bandage,” said Shahnawaz Shaikh, Zubeida’s elder son.

Shahnawaz said that around 3.30 am on Saturday, he got a call, which he did not take. “The next morning, when I called back, the person at the other end said he was from Sion police station and that my mother had met with an accident,” he told HT.

The police said that on Friday night, they were told by Sion Hospital about an injured woman but were not told that she had been hit by a vehicle. “When we went to the hospital, they told us that they had found the woman lying unconscious at around 11 pm so they admitted her to Ward Number 20,” said a police officer. “Our officer, after speaking to the authorities, left from the spot as he could not record her statement anyway since she was unconscious.”

On Saturday morning, the police got information from the public that there had been an accident at around 7.30 pm on Friday in which an SUV had run over a woman. “Our officers went and checked on the woman who had been admitted and saw that there were suspicious injury marks on her body,” said the police officer. “We then asked for the CCTV footage and managed to get it by Saturday evening after a lot of effort. At around 3 pm on Saturday, the hospital also informed us that the woman had died.”

When the police checked the CCTV footage, it became clear that the woman had died after the SUV, a Tata Harrier, ran over her. “We learnt that it was driven by Dr Rajesh Dere,” said the police officer. “Dere was leaving after work while the woman was sleeping in one corner on the outer premises of the hospital. The front left wheel of his car first ran over her and later she got stuck under the left rear tyre.”

A case has been registered against Dere under Sections 304 A (causing death by negligence), 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 177 (furnishing false information), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 184 (dangerously driving) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The police said they would conduct medical tests to find out if the accused was drunk at the time. “Though there’s been a time lapse, we will do a medical test,” said the police officer. “We will conduct the post-mortem at J J Hospital since the doctor belongs to Sion hospital. We are also in the process of seizing the vehicle.”

Twenty-four hours after the incident when HT called Dr Mohan Joshi, dean of Sion Hospital, he said he was unaware of the incident. “The police did ask us for CCTV grabs, which we have provided. I will now try to find out the details of what happened,” he said.