The Kerala High Court on Thursday asked the State government to inform the court about the facilities available at the taluk hospital at Sulthan Bathery to handle snakebite cases.
Justice Alexander Thomas issued the order when bail pleas of Jisa Merin Joy, a doctor of Batheri Taluk Hospital, and K.K Mohanan and C.V. Shajil, Vice Principal and a teacher respectively of Government Sarvajana Higher Secondary School at Sulthan Bathery, came up for hearing. The court asked Additional Director General of Prosecution Suresh Babu Thomas to inform the court as to whether the hospital had sufficient stocks of anti-venom vials and whether the doctors had easy access to the store where vials were kept.
When the bail petition was taken up for hearing, the prosecutor opposed the petition and submitted that there was gross culpable negligence on the part of the accused. First accused Shajil had prevented other teachers from taking the student, who was bitten by a snake, to the hospital and asked others to wait for her father to come. Besides, he had neither accompanied the victim to the nearby private hospital or to the government taluk hospital or to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. The court asked whether the obstinate behaviour of the first accused could be equated to criminal culpability. The court adjourned the hearing on bail petitions to next week.
