Aster DM Healthcare to build US$350 million, 500-bed hospital in Grand Cayman
Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare is all set to establish a US$350 million, 500-bed hospital in Grand Cayman.
Speaking at a press conference Monday morning, Premier Alden McLaughlin said the Cayman Islands government was entering into a partnership with Aster and would be executing a legal agreement relating to the project immediately following the briefing.
The new health facility, which will be built in phases over several years, will include a hospital, assisted-living accommodations and a medical university, and will provide medical care to both local patients and medical tourists, the premier said.
Dr. Azan Moopen, founder of Aster DM Healthcare, speaking via Zoom, said the first phase of the facility was expected to be commissioned within “the next two to three years”.
He said the facility would target the 1.4 million medical tourists who travel overseas for healthcare from the United States annually, as well as patients from Canada and countries throughout the Caribbean.
(Dr. Azan Moopan, founder, managing director and chairman of Aster DM Healthcare)
Aster has some 365 medical facilities across eight countries, employing more than 19,000 employees.
Moopen said his company had been looking to expand to other countries outside Asia and the Middle East, and were “in search of an ideal location and supportive government and associates to make this a reality”.
“When we visited the Cayman Islands and met the honourable premier and other senior leaders, we were greatly impressed by the business-friendly environment, the easy accessibility to the highest levels of government, and the transparency along with the quality-focussed approach,” he said.
This would be the second Aster Medcity set up by the group. One already exists in Kochi, Kerala, in southern India.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
