New Delhi, February 9 The Supreme Court on Monday refused to cancel the bail granted to a cardiologist in Gujarat, who was arrested for performing unnecessary and botched angioplasty procedures on two beneficiaries of the PMJAY scheme, resulting in their deaths.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and AS Chandurkar dismissed a plea by the Gujarat government challenging the high court's order of December 8, 2023, granting regular bail to Dr Prashant Vazirani.
“He is a doctor, a cardiologist, let him serve. You can keep an eye on him. If he is doing something, you can take action,” the bench told the Gujarat government's standing counsel, Swati Ghildiyal.
The Gujarat government stated that it was a serious case, and two people had died due to the unnecessary procedures performed by the doctor.
“We have seen all the material. We will not interfere,” said Justice Maheshwari.
The top court also questioned senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing the doctor, “Why was he doing all this? You are a cardiologist, don't engage in such things.”
On December 8, 2023, the high court granted bail to Vazirani, who had performed angioplasty on the victims at the Khyati Multispeciality Hospital in Ahmedabad.
On November 14, 2024, the police registered three FIRs related to the deaths of two PMJAY beneficiaries due to unnecessary and botched angioplasty procedures and arrested Vazirani, who had performed the heart procedure.
The city's Vastrapur police had registered the cases and arrested the accused doctor.
Two cases were filed based on complaints from the families of the deceased, while the third was registered after the Chief District Medical Officer approached the police on behalf of the state government.
According to the police, these individuals “conspired to obtain undue financial benefits under the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), which led to the deaths of two people.”
Nagarbhai Senma (59) and Mahesh Barot (45) were among seven people on whom angioplasty with stent placement was performed at the Ahmedabad hospital.
The two, residents of Mehsana district, died at the hospital on the same day.
According to the FIRs, angioplasty and stents were placed in the arteries of these two individuals despite the fact that there was no need for surgical intervention.
Moreover, these patients were not given proper post-operative care, and no cardiologist was present at the time of their deaths, the police said.
The police further claimed that the hospital lied about the arterial blockages to persuade the patients to undergo angioplasty and stent placement.
They stated that the victims were operated on and stents were placed solely to exploit the PMJAY scheme, as the government would pay the hospital for the surgeries it performed on scheme beneficiaries.
The relatives of the deceased alleged that the hospital kept them in the dark and conducted the heart procedure in haste to take undue advantage of the government scheme.
The Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY provides free health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh per year to eligible individuals.
Following the camp, the hospital brought 19 villagers to its facility in Ahmedabad on November 11, 2024, saying they would have to undergo angiography.
After angiography, a process that involves the use of X-ray imaging to examine blood vessels and determine if they are narrowed or blocked, doctors performed angioplasty on seven of them and also placed stents on the same day.
Angioplasty is a procedure that widens blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to improve blood flow to the heart.
