NEW DELHI: A four-member team has been arrested for the death of seven patients during surgeries. The police arrested four including the owner of Agarwal Medical Centre functioning in Greater Kailash area in New Delhi. Owner Dr Neeraj Agarwal, his wife Puja Agarwal, Dr Jaspreet Singh and lab technician Mahender Singh are those arrested.

A youth identified as Asghar Ali came to the hospital last year for treatment of gall bladder. The hospital authorities informed that he needs a surgery. The authorities initially told the relatives of the youth that Jaspreet was performing the surgery. However, just before the surgery, Pooja and Mahender were appointed instead of Jaspreet. As the youth felt severe pain after the surgery, his relatives shifted him to the nearby Safdarjung Hospital. The youth died before reaching the hospital.

Complaints were received that Pooja Agarwal and Mahender Singh, a lab technician, often pretended to be doctors and performed surgeries in the hospital, functioning without sufficient qualifications. The complainants alleged that Dr. Neeraj Agarwal also performed surgeries without adequate qualifications and that he had fake certificates. Nine complaints were received against him and his wife Pooja Aggarwal since 2016. From the subsequent investigation, it was found that seven patients in the hospital died due to the negligence of the doctors.

Police Commissioner Chandan Chaudhary told media that a four-member medical board was called by the police for detailed interrogation on November 1. The investigation team found that Agarwal had falsified not only the patients' treatments but also the documents related to the surgery. The police seized 414 prescriptions from the hospital with only the signatures of the doctors.

Two registers containing details of contraceptive surgeries performed at the hospital and records of patients being injected with banned drugs were also seized. Expired surgical blades, original medical records of patients, several check books of 47 banks, 54 ATM cards, etc were seized from Agarwal's house and hospital.