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Rahul Mahajan off ventilator support

      New Delhi: Rahul Mahajan, the ailing son of former BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, was taken off ventilator support on Saturday after he showed signs of improvement. He is still in the Intensive Care Unit of New Delhi's Apollo Hospital. A hospital press note stated that Rahul is out of danger and his vital parameters are functioning normally. Mahajan's blood sugar level, which was high earlier, is now normal, but he is being kept under close observation. Rahul's mother, Rekha Mahajan, and his uncle Gopinath Munde met him in the ICU. A six-member multi-disciplinary medical team headed by Dr. Prasad Rao, a specialist in internal medicine, is attending to Mahajan. Preliminary investigations now reveal that he may have taken cocaine and champagne together, which led to health complications.

    The latest twist in the junior Mahajan saga has left more open ended questions than what it appeared on Friday night. The Apollo Hospital's latest toxic screening report, which suggests no traces of cocaine, ecstasy or opiate in Rahul Mahajan's blood stream, further propels the conspiracy theory that an attempt was made to poison the latter. Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who is also Rahul's uncle, alleged that the family has been victim of conspiracy and that Mahajan junior was poisoned. However, Dr. Anupam Sibal of Apollo Hospital was unable to name the toxic material that led to a deterioration in Mahajan's condition and evasively replied that the private hospital lacked the facilities to check all toxic-related parameters. With all four persons now being interrogated by police claiming to be innocent, the law enforcers are on the lookout for the Vasant Vihar peddlar who supplied " cocaine" pouches to Sahil and his companions.

     Rahul's mother and his uncle Gopinath Munde met him in the morning, when Rahul regained consciousness.

Fourth man Sahil appears in Srinagar (Go To Top)

      New Delhi/Srinagar: Sahil Zaroo, the much sought after 'fourth' man who was present during the Thursday night "champagne-drug" episode in which Rahul Mahajan and Bibek Moitra, the son and secretary of late Pramod Mahajan, fell sick, turned up at the Srinagar studio of the Aaj Tak television channel on Saturday afternoon and was promptly taken into police custody. Sahil appeared with his lawyer, Aslam Ghoni, to proclaim his innocence.

    Earlier, the three young men, who were reportedly seen in Rahul Mahajan's company on Thursday night, surrendered to the police. Their lawyer said that his clients were not "drug-peddlers" and have offered to help in the investigation. They, however, revealed that Moitra had asked them to bring "stuff", an apparent reference to cocaine".

     Claiming to be victimised, since he did not belong to a politically connected class, Sahil refuted allegations that he was involved with drug peddlars or trafficking, and questioned claims that no drug or alcohol was found in the blood samples of Rahul Mahajan by doctors, when for the past 36 hours, the news going around was that a white powdery susbtsance was cocaine and packets of it were found inside the Mahajan residence along with glasses of champagne. Refusing to clearly establish the chain of events of Thursday, which led to the death of Bibek and the admittance of Rahul Mahajan into the intensive care unit of New Delhi's Apollo Hospital, a stressed out Sahil indirectly suggested that a cover-up was being mounted, and the blame was being put on him on the basis of "circumstanial evidence". Sahil, 21, a final year student of Mumbai's prestigious St. Xavier's College, claimed that he knew Bibek when they were both located in Mumbai, and said that he went to the Mahajan residence in Delhi only at Bibek's invitation.

Moitra poisoned: post-mortem report (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The post-mortem report of Bibek Moitra, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader the late Pramod Mahajan's private secretary, has revealed traces of poison in his blood. The viscera sample have been sent to a forensic laboratory for further tests. A substance known as thallium was found in Moitra's body, which damages the nervous system, lungs, heart and liver The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is now unlikely to hand over Moitra's body to his family for another two to three days to prevent destruction of evidence. Moitra was brought to New Delhi's Apollo Hospital on Friday morning dead along with Rahul, the son of Pramod Mahajan, who was admitted in critical condition.

     The body will be sent to Mumbai for his final rites today. Moitra's body is being kept at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences mortuary following a post-mortem. Medical details relating to both Rahul Mahajan and Vivek Moitra , including toxicology screening reports, are expected today. Rahul was admitted to the Apollo Hospital on Friday morning with a suspected case of food poisoning. Preliminary investigations now reveal that he may have taken cocaine and champagne together, which led to health complications.

No cocaine in Rahul's blood: Apollo (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Giving a clean chit to an ailing Rahul Mahajan, doctors at Apollo Hospital here claimed on Saturday that his toxicology report showed 'no cocaine' and any other drug in his blood samples. Talking to reporters, Dr Anupam Sibal said: "No drug traces were found in Rahul's blood sample." "We did 14-15 tests to detect known drugs which are generally found here and all the tests were found negative." Replying to a question as to whether Rahul has been provided with antidotes, he said there was no need for it as Rahul is making a very good recovery. However, he accepted that some alcohol was found in Rahul's blood sample. Besides all these findings the doctors here are yet to ascertain the actual cause of his ailment. "At this point, we don't have any evidence regarding what made him sick," said Sibal. "Rahul Mahajan was very sick when he came here. In the last 24 hrs, his situation has improved, his BP has improved and ventilator has been removed...He is talking now and he has asked for water. He is progressing on our lines. Rahul is speaking coherently and is conscious of time, space and person," the latest bulletin added.

Rahul case registered for drug abuse (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Delhi Police today registered FIR under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, against Sahil and "others" involved with the incident that led to late Pramod Mahajan's son, Rahul falling sick and his secretary Bibek Moitra's death, Apart from stating about drug abuse, the case has been registered in the Tughlak Road police station, against the destruction of evidences, since the floors were wiped off and the champagne bottles were removed from the scene of incident at 7, Safdurjung Road. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manish Agrawal while speaking to reporters said that the case has been filed on the basis of the first hand information that the police received. Since the case has been registered under the NDPS Act, it makes consumption, too a non-bail able offence and that if the offender is proved guilty the person could be subjected to imprisonment ranging from six months to one year. However according to the Act, the onus lies on the offender to prove that the drug is for consumption and not for trafficking, if proved otherwise the offender could be subjected to imprisonment for 10 to 20 years. While Police is zeroing on the drug abuse case, the Apollo Hospital found the Toxic Screening Report negative for all the 14 drugs that were put to test from the blood sample of Rahul Mahajan. Meanwhile, a television news channel reported that it could be heroin that was supplied to Sahil from the alleged Vasant Vihar drug peddler rather than the much talked about cocaine; and that Sahil Zaroo was well acquainted with Delhi's drug peddler circuit and was known to be close to Rahul Mahajan.

Rahul's case a family affair, says BJP (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday tried to wash its hands of the controversy surrounding Rahul Mahajan, the son of former BJP leader Pramod Mahajan. The party said that BJP had nothing to do with the case and it was a family affair. Addressing newspersons after attending a BJP meeting at Advani's residence, party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said, "This is the family's personal tragedy. We are sad because he (Rahul) is the son of the party's former general secretary, but it would not be right to link it with the party." Rahul and Pramod's private secretary Bibek Moitra were rushed to New Delhi's Apollo Hospital on Friday after they were found unconscious at Mahajan's residence at 7, Safdarjung Road here. Moitra was declared brought dead at the hospital. Police suspect that Rahul and Moitra might have consumed drugs on Thursday night. Meanwhile, hospital authorities have claimed that Rahul's toxicology report reveals that there was no cocaine in his blood samples. Earlier today, the hospital authorities had said that Rahul's condition had improved and ventilator support was removed.