A number of protesters who were injured during the weekend protests and subsequent detentions by the Delhi Police were left with swollen fingers, bruised bodies, and bleeding necks and heads, but say that when the police took them to hospital for treatment, they were denied copies of their medico-legal case (MLC) details and their patient summaries.
The patient can ask the police for the MLC [copy]. We usually give the patients a case summary highlighting the injuries. Later that night, he and three others were taken to the Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital, in the presence of the police. “We asked the doctors to document the injuries and they did. But we were not given copies of the MLCs or any medical summaries. Later, she was taken out of the bus, and we all thought that she was being taken to receive medical treatment, and she was brutally beaten up further. She added that the police tried to stamp on Ms. Aranya, which left visible boot marks on her shirt. ALSO WATCH No more protests at Jantar Mantar: Delhi Police names three new alternative venues | Ground Report
At around 11:30 p.m. that night, she was taken to the Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) in the presence of the police, but was not given any case summary or a copy of the MLC, despite asking for it.
A doctor at one of the hospitals which treated protesters said, on the condition of anonymity, “The usual protocol is that an MLC is registered and copies are provided to the police. A source at one of the hospitals that denied records to patients said that they are pressured not to share any information during protests. The hospitals asked us to take the MLCs from the police and the police refused to give them to us,” he said. A friend of hers said, “She was trying to ensure that other protesters do not get detained, when the police started holding her down and dragging her by the hair.
Aranya, a Delhi University student from the Disha Students’ Organisation, whose friends were looking for her for hours on Sunday after she was detained at Connaught Place, had also received bruises on her face, hands, and knees.
The Hindu has reported that hospital records had confirmed pellet gun usage, even as the Delhi police denied it. The denial of medical records to injured protesters can have serious consequences , as seen in the case of those hit by pellet guns in the July 20 protest . Hospitals usually make three copies of the MLC, of which two are given to the police, and one is kept in the hospital. The hospital is supposed to share a case summary with the patient, who can also ask the police for a copy of the MLC.
However, lawyers say that due to grey areas in the law, a patient has to run from the hospital to the police to get access to their MLCs and case summaries.
