A gang of robbers is active in the city hospitals as two incidents of drugging and poisoning patients and their attendants have come to light in the past few days. In one such incident, a woman who had come for treatment for her 13-year-old daughter at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital was given sedatives by miscreants who fled with her gold earrings and cash.
The victim, a resident of Madipur in west Delhi, had come to the gastroenterology department for the treatment of her daughter. She was waiting for her turn when four people, including a 12-year-old boy, approached her. They took her OPD card and told her that she is waiting outside the wrong room. They said that the doctor for whom she is waiting sits in another room. In the meantime, one of them put a handkerchief on her nose. The woman fell unconscious after sniffing it. The girl too was targeted in the same manner.
When the woman gained consciousness she reported the incident to the police and complained that her earrings and `4,000 are missing. An FIR was lodged under IPC 420/34 at the Mandir Marg police station.
A hospital official said that the police is investigating the case. A team is scanning the CCTV footage. Till now, 24 patients, who have been identified in the footage, have been questioned.
Meanwhile, a similar incident came to light on April 18 at Safdarjung Hospital too. A woman, Maya Devi, 55, had gone there with her daughter Seema, 24, for her eye check up when an unidentified person gave her something to eat and robbed the money she was carrying when she lost sense. The woman died after six days in the hospital. The police is still looking for clues in the incident.