March 4: Police today questioned for several hours a senior doctor from Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals who had treated accident victim Sanjoy Roy. An employee of the hospital was questioned, too.

This is the first time a doctor has been questioned by the police in connection with the complaint of medical negligence filed by Roy's widow Rubi with Phoolbagan police station.

The doctor was called to the police station and taken to a room where he was questioned on the basis of jottings on Roy's bed-ticket at Apollo.

The bed-ticket contains the doctor's observations about Roy's condition after admission, the tests he had advised and details of how the patient had been treated over the next few days.

"We asked the doctor how he would justify each of the steps he had taken while treating Roy and whether he thought things could have been handled differently," an officer of the police station said.

"After the question-answer session was over, the doctor was taken to another room, where his statements were recorded."

Over the past few days, the police went through the bed-ticket running into 300-plus pages before drawing up a list of the persons, doctors and others, who need to be questioned in connection with Ruby's complaint.

Based on the complaint, a criminal case has been drawn up under the IPC sections 304A (death due to negligence), 384 (extortion) and 34 (common intention) against the hospital.

"The statements of the persons we will question will form a vital part of our evidence in court," the officer said. "The process of interrogation began today and over the next few days we plan to question several others based on the understanding of medical jurisprudence under the Indian Penal Code."

The doctor was questioned a day after a six-member inquiry committee set up by the health department received Roy's post-mortem report.

The report revealed that Roy had died of the "effect of injuries" on his liver, gall bladder and arteries.

The employee who was questioned today was asked about the hospital's billing process and the process followed in Roy's case. "The role of the non-medical staff in this case is also very important," the officer said.