Dombivli hospital attack: Sena corporator sent to police custody till July 13

Kalyan: A day after rejecting police’s plea to produce him via video conferencing on the grounds of ill health, a court on Friday sent Shiv Sena’s Kalyan-Dombivli corporator Ramesh Mhatre to police custody till Monday for the alleged assault of two doctors and nurses of a civic-run hospital in Dombivli over a purported delay in treatment of a pregnant patient.The court directed the investigating officer to ensure that he undergoes a medical examination by a govt doctor every eight hours.Police also got custody of Mhatre’s three supporters, who were arrested in the case, till Monday.Mhatre was brought to the Kalyan court on Friday afternoon after being discharged from Thane Civil Hospital, where he had been admitted following complaints of hypertension and elevated blood sugar levels hours after his arrest on Wednesday.

The court directed police on Thursday to produce him in person.During the hearing, the prosecution sought seven days of police custody, saying investigators needed to record the statements of all the accused, establish their individual roles, analyse CCTV footage and collect additional evidence.Mhatre’s counsel, A Y Patki, said he went to the civic hospital only after receiving repeated calls from the patient’s husband alleging a delay in treatment.

The defence said he visited the hospital to assist the patient’s family and had no intention of assaulting anyone. Patki said the 72-year-old corporator has only one kidney and has hypertension, diabetes and prostate-related ailments, and sought appropriate medical care during his custody.Heavy police security was deployed in and around the court premises during Mhatre’s production. The arrangements led to protests from lawyers, who alleged that police gave the corporator “VIP treatment”. Advocate Pradip Bawiskar claimed that police personnel shoved lawyers, prevented them from approaching the courtroom and warned them to vacate the area, allegedly threatening to book them for obstructing public servants if they did not comply.

He alleged that despite several high-profile criminal cases being heard at the court in the past, he had never witnessed such elaborate security arrangements for an accused.