The DCP (Crime Branch) Karnal Singh said the MS Dr Ramesh Arora has been asked to produce records relating to the deaths following an order of the chief metropolitan magistrate Prem Kumar earlier this month. The case was registered on a complaint filed by the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) which sought inquiries into the use of out-dated medicines and devices in the G.B. Pant Hospital. These are said to have been sourced during 1988-90 when purchases worth Rs 86 crore were made.

The Crime Branch has registered a case of culpable homicide against 15 people including the former director of the hospital Dr M. Khalilullah, two former directors, Dinesh Chandra and S.K. Khanna, the Delhi health minister Harshvardhan, the Delhi government's principal medical secretary Ramesh Chandra, the hospital's former medical superintendent D.K. Srivastava and the present hospital director Anindita Mandal.

The DCP refused to comment on the two weeks delay in carrying out the CJM's order directing the police to immediately seize all material connected with the case. He ruled out any chances of destruction of evidence in the form of drugs and devices by the hospital. It is all there in the stock register and no one can tamper with it, he said. Meanwhile, the counsel for PUCL, V K Ohri said the police was acting too slow for the probe to do any good. One wing of the the government (the police) is undoing the good done by another wing (the court), he said.

He pointed out that two more deaths had occurred in the hospital due to out-dated drugs and devices during the period between the CJM's order and the delay by the Crime Branch this week in registering a case. The police could have easily prevented these had it acted faster and seized the remaining material worth nearly Rs 10 crore still in the possession of the hospital, Ohri said.

He reminded the court that the relevant order had even told the police to feel free to approach it for help if it faced any difficulty in investigations and seizures.

He said the court handed over the inquiry to the Crime Branch after the Central Bureau of Investigation refused to act on the directive of a magistrate's court. The CBI had quoted the Neena Pillai case as a precedent and said it would act only on orders of the government.