Ample evidence to nail Apollo: Cops

New Delhi: Faced with a court deadline to file a status report on investigation against Apollo Hospital, police on Wednesday said it has "ample evidence" to prove that "tampering" was done at the highest level to botch up the Rahul Mahajan drug abuse case.

Armed with the fresh evidence, top police sources said that "there is ample evidence to show that the hospital wiped off evidence during the nearly two hour gap they got between Rahul's admission to the hospital and when the police was informed.

"We are also planning to question Apollo head Pratap Reddy and his aide Raji Chandru in next couple of days," he added.

The sources said they also have evidence to prove that late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's aide Harish Sharma, Reddy and Chandru made several calls to each other in the intervening night of June 1 and June 2 between 0255 hrs (IST), when Rahul was brought in, and 0500 hrs (IST), when police was informed about his admission and death of Vivek Moitra.

"They got a good two hours to tamper and wipe off the evidence to botch up the whole case. We also got to know that Chandru foot the nearly Rs 4.5 lakh hospital bill of Rahul and Moitra. This shows that there was a nexus from the top," a top-investigating officer said.

Investigators said they would like to know from Reddy and Chandru about the "two-hour delay" in informing the police about the incident, especially since a known public figure was involved in it.

They said police was also investigating whether the entry register of the hospital was "fudged" and added that due to the delay in informing the police, investigators were finding it difficult to ascertain the exact quantity of drugs involved.

"If they (hospital) would have informed us on time, we would have been able to collect more evidence from the scene and would have also prevented any destruction of evidence," they said.

The hospital has also failed to give a satisfactory explanation as to why Rahul was put on ventilator after he was admitted in the hospital, they added.

Meanwhile, a Delhi Court directed the police to file by July seven a status report on investigations related to the case registered against the doctors and management of Apollo Hospitals in the case.