Hospital files complaint against ‘fake news’

Ghaziabad: A private hospital in Ghaziabad, which was subjected to a vilification campaign on social media through fake news accusing its doctors of negligence in a patient’s death, lodged a police complaint on Tuesday alleging a conspiracy to bring it disrepute.

The video clip, which is 6.23 minutes long, shows attendants of a patient, heaping abuses on doctors alleging negligence in treatment and accusing them of stealing a kidney from the body.

The video clip was circulated on WhatsApp along with a post alleging that the incident took place in Yashoda Hospital. The post urged its readers against visiting Yashoda Hospital for treatment. The post and the video clip had begun circulating in the city towards the end of last week.

The hospital management denied the allegations made against it and said no incident of this nature has been reported from any of their branches.

“It is clear from the audio in the clip that the incident took place in another private hospital. The doctors seen in the video clip do not belong to our hospital. Our enquiries revealed that the clip pertains to a private hospital in Kota, Rajasthan, regarding which an FIR had also been registered. Yet, social media users unscrupulously kept forwarding the post without verifying the facts. The video clip found its way to YouTube as well. The video was taken down from the website after we complained to it. We are in talks with legal experts regarding the filing of a defamation case,” said hospital spokesperson Dr Sunil Dagar.

The management of the hospital registered a complaint with Ghaziabad police against unidentified persons.

The hospital management said it is unaware about the origin of the video clip and the post discouraging people from visiting the hospital. Till Wednesday evening, however, no case had been registered in the matter.

“We have received a complaint from the hospital. But a criminal case cannot be filed by the police for an incident of this nature. We have asked the hospital management to file a defamation case in a court of law if they so wish,” said SSP Vaibhav Krishna.