Gujarat: Probe on into death of CM's cousin due to ambulance 'delay'

The Gujarat government has ordered an inquiry into allegation that delayed arrival of an '108' ambulance resulted into the death of a cousin of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, officials said on Wednesday.

The CM's sexagenarian cousin Anilbhai Sanghvi died at his residence in Rajkot on October 4 following breathlessness. He was son of Rupani's aunt (mother's sister).

According to BJP leaders, family members of the deceased complained to the chief minister about the delay in arrival of the emergency ambulance during his visit to Sanghvi's residence on Tuesday.

"We came to know that Sanghvi's family members had called the '108' ambulance to take him to hospital after he complained of breathlessness on October 4. It is alleged that by the time the ambulance reached his house Sanghvi had died," said a BJP leader.

Rajkot district collector Remya Mohan informed on Wednesday that the state Health department had ordered an inquiry into the allegation.

Meanwhile, a preliminary report of the '108' ambulance service regional coordinator stated that the ambulance took "39 minutes" to reach Sanghvi's residence in Saurashtra Kala Kendra Society because it had mistakenly visited another location having a similar name.

"An inquiry into the entire incident has been ordered by the state Health department. We are also in the loop. The inquiry is being conducted by the Regional Deputy Director of Health department in Rajkot. In the meantime, the district coordinator of 108 service has submitted a preliminary report" Mohan told reporters.

The collector said the caller (a relative of Sanghvi) gave Modi School as the landmark to locate the residential society.

"Since the locations are auto-assigned to ambulances by a software the ambulance reached Ishwariya village on the outskirts of the city because there is another Modi School in that area too. As a result, the ambulance took 39 minutes to reach the actual location," explained Mohan.

The collector said more details will emerge after the final inquiry report.

"Attempts will be made to fine-tune the auto-assignment feature so that such unfortunate incidents do not recur," she added.