Doctor sentenced for medical negligence

Top cancer surgeon and Padma Bhushan awardee Praful Desai underwent simple imprisonment till the rising of the court and paid a compensation of Rs 50,000, in perhaps the oldest running case of medical negligence in the country.

Desai, 80, served his sentence on November 20 after Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D D Deshmukh, recorded his willingness to undergo the punishment as his appeals in higher courts had been dismissed.

The sentence was handed down in July last year by the trial court and confirmed by the Bombay High Court on October 15 this year.

P C Singhi, a retired IAS officer and husband of the patient Leela Singhi, who had died of cancer, had filed a complaint of medical negligence against Desai way back in 1989.
It took him nearly 23 years to win the case, the longest running case of medical negligence in a criminal court.

It was the first case of medical negligence in which the evidence of a US-based doctor was recorded through a video conference.