-PTI
An elderly resident of Indore has alleged that her husband died in 2010 following a drug trial a government doctor conducted on him without his consent.
The doctor in question, Salil Bhargava, denied that he was involved in any “illegal or unethical” drug trials.
“We have carried out all the drug trials after getting due consent from the patients for which they were duly insured. We have all records with us in this regard,” he said.
Anwar Bi complained to the Drug Controller General of India, the Medical Council of India and the National Human Rights Commission that her husband had gone to the state-run Manorama Raje TB Hospital in Madhya Pradesh where some junior doctors referred him to asthma and TB specialist Bhargava.
She said Bhargava took Rasheed to his private clinic, Gyanpushp Research Centre for Chest and Allergy Diseases, where he allegedly tried an untested/unknown medicine on him. She said her husband’s condition deteriorated and he died on April 21, 2010.
Rasheed’s name figured on a list of patients on whom drug trials were carried out between 2005 and 2010. The list was prepared on the directives of Assembly Speaker Ishwardas Rohani.