At midnight hearing, court orders evacuation of 22 trapped in east Delhi hospital

In an urgent
midnight hearing, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked police to ensure safe
passage and emergency treatment to injured people stuck in north east Delhi’s
Al Hind hospital.

The hearing,
held at 12:30 am at the residence of Delhi HC judge Justice S Muralidhar, was
attended by joint commissioner Alok Kumar and DCP (crime) Rajesh Deo. Delhi
government counsel Sanjoy Ghose was also present at the hearing.

The matter
was taken up on a call by advocate Suroor Mander, who said that several injured
people at the Al Hind Hospital in the New Mustafabad area, were unable to be
moved to the GTB hospital and needed urgent medical attention.

Mander, in
her petition, sought safe passage of ambulance both to the Al Hind Hospital and
from the hospital for the injured victims.

The doctor
informed the judges that at the hospital, there are two dead and around 22
injured at the hospital, who were in need of assistance from Delhi police since
4 pm on Tuesday evening but no such help was made available.

The court
was informed that the rioters were not allowing the ambulance to pass and since
the situation is tense, the doctors wanted the police to help in the safe
shifting of the patients from Al Hind hospital to GTB hospital.

The Court
said that, at this stage, it is primarily concerned about ensuring the safety
of lives of the injured and immediate medical attention.

The Court
accordingly directed the Delhi Police to ensure such safe passage by deploying
all the resources at its command and on the strength of this order and to
ensure that apart from the safe passage, the injured victims receive immediate
emergency treatment , if not at GTB, then at LNJP or Maulana azad or any other
government hospital.

The court
directed that a status report of compliance, including information about the
injured victims and the treatment offered to them, be placed before this court
later today when the matter is taken up for hearing at 2:30 pm.