Harish Rana, India's first person to be allowed passive euthanasia, dies in AIIMS
New Delhi (PTI): Harish Rana, the first person in India to be allowed passive euthanasia, passed away on Tuesday at AIIMS-Delhi after more than 13 years in a coma, sources said.
The 31-year-old, who has been in a coma since 2013, was shifted from his Ghaziabad home to the palliative care unit at Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on March 14.
Three days before that, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment on March 11, allowed passive euthanasia for Harish, who was a BTech student at Panjab University who fell from a fourth-floor balcony in 2013 and suffered severe head injuries.
He had been in a coma since, with artificial nutrition support and occasional oxygen support.
Passive euthanasia is the intentional act of letting a patient die by withholding or withdrawing life support or the treatment necessary to keep him alive.
Harish's nutritional support was gradually withdrawn after he was admitted to the hospital, the sources said on Tuesday.
Harish's family had said after the apex court judgment that the withdrawal of artificial life support would not bring any personal benefit to the family, but in the larger public interest, the decision could help others facing similar situations.
His father, Ashok Rana, had said passive euthanasia would restore Harish's dignity after years of irreversible suffering.
Pinki Virani, a journalist and activist who filed a petition for euthanasia to Aruna Shanbaug in 2011, thanked the doctors and nurses at AIIMS for “compassionately applying passive euthanasia”, and urged that one should let their family members know “if they would want to exercise this right for themselves”.
“May Harish Rana rest in peace. May his parents and his brother find a quiet peace of their own amid what has been a very long loss for them... I continue to be grateful to the Supreme Court for allowing the right to die with dignity in 2011... It's a choice, and if they so choose, they can help the process by making their wishes – pertaining legally to passive euthanasia – known so that their final exit is free from guilt and trauma,” Virani told PTI.
The top court had rejected Virani's plea on behalf of Shanbaug, who remained bedridden in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital since a brutal sexual assault in November 1973.
The Mumbai nurse finally died of pneumonia in 2015.
In its March 11 judgement, the apex court had directed AIIMS-Delhi to ensure that life support is withdrawn with a tailored plan so that dignity is maintained.
A specialised medical team headed by Dr Seema Mishra, professor and head of the department of anaesthesia and palliative medicine, was constituted to implement the process, the first in India.
The team comprised doctors from departments of neurosurgery, onco-anaesthesia and palliative medicine, and psychiatry.
The Supreme Court, in its March 11 judgment, allowed passive euthanasia for a person for the first time in the country.
Ruling on the long-discussed emotive issue, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan asked the Union government to consider bringing a comprehensive legislation on passive euthanasia.
The top court noted that Rana survived only through clinically administered nutrition via 'percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy' tubes, and medical boards had unanimously concluded that continuation of treatment would merely prolong biological existence without any possibility of recovery.
When primary and secondary boards have certified withdrawal of life support, there is no need for judicial intervention, the apex court said.
It also asked the Centre to ensure that the chief medical officers in all districts maintain a panel of registered medical practitioners for nomination to secondary medical boards.
The court made a special mention of Rana's parents, Ashok and Nirmala Rana, expressing its appreciation to them for showing immense love and care for their son.
“His family never left his side,” the court said.
The order allowing passive euthanasia is in line with the court's 2018 Common Cause judgment, which was modified in 2023 and recognised the fundamental right to die with dignity.
In the 2018 judgement, a constitution bench recognised passive euthanasia and the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The court had held that passive euthanasia could be carried out using “advance medical directives”.
On January 24, 2023, a five-judge Constitution bench modified the 2018 guidelines to ease the process of granting passive euthanasia to terminally ill patients.
A primary and a secondary medical board will have to be formed for an expert opinion on the withdrawal of artificial life support for a patient in a vegetative state, the guidelines said.
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Ajit Pawar death: ‘Zero FIR’ registered in Bengaluru
Bengaluru (PTI): The Bengaluru police have registered a case related to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash in Baramati on a complaint by his nephew Rohit Pawar, who has alleged that the tragedy was a result of a "larger criminal conspiracy” to eliminate his uncle.
Pawar was killed on January 28 when a Bombardier Learjet 45 aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures Private Limited, crashed near Baramati Airport, Pune, Maharashtra.
The aircraft was on a flight from Mumbai to Baramati and was carrying Ajit Pawar and four others on board, who were all killed in the crash.
Based on the complaint, the High Grounds police registered ‘Zero FIR’, which can be registered at any police station, irrespective of where the offence was committed.
“We have registered a zero FIR and transferred it to the Maharashtra police for investigation,” a senior police officer told PTI.
Rohit Pawar said he had previously approached Marine Drive Police Station on February 25 and Baramati Police Station on February 26 without an FIR being registered, “and was subsequently informed by Pune CID that they were examining only the Accidental Death Report angle”.
“The complainant contends that the incident was a result of a larger criminal conspiracy aimed at eliminating the Deputy Chief Minister,” the complaint read.
Rohit claimed that there were “systematic violations” of aviation safety regulations, deliberate falsification of records, gross negligence in maintenance and operations, and a pattern of conduct which led to the incident.
According to him, on February 24, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its safety audit report “declared and admitted” that aircraft of the VSR Company were “negligent, not airworthy” and therefore were grounded as part of the DGCA investigation in the crash of the charter plane.
He alleged that the aircraft VT-SSK was being operated in systematic violation of mandatory safety standards.
At the time of the crash, the aircraft had accumulated approximately 4,915 flight hours, leaving only about 85 hours before the mandatory engine Time Before Overhaul ('TBO') threshold of 5,000 hours was reached, he charged.
“Despite operating dangerously close to this limit, VSR continued to deploy the aircraft for commercial operations, placing the crew and passengers at heightened risk of mechanical malfunction,” said Rohit Pawar.
He suspected that the aircraft may have infact accumulated flight hours in excess of 8,000 hours, far beyond its certified safe operational limits.
“This deliberate suppression and misrepresentation of flight data amounts to falsification of statutory maintenance records and constitutes a serious violation of aviation safety regulations as enumerated in the complaint,” Rohit Pawar said.
He charged that “this pattern of falsification” allowed continued commercial operation of a fundamentally unsafe aircraft.
“The DGCA's certification records for aircraft VT-SSK disclose procedurally anomalous and potentially fabricated documentation. The Airworthiness Certificate for the aircraft was issued on December 16, 2021, while the Aircraft Registration Certificate was only issued on 27th December 2022, a full year later.”
Standard aviation procedure requires that registration precede airworthiness certification.
“This reversal of prescribed sequence suggests either gross administrative failure or deliberate manipulation of records at the DGCA level,” Rohit said.
He also alleged that the Chief Pilot Sumit Kapoor, who commanded the aircraft on the day of the crash, had a documented history of alcohol-related violations, leading to a three-year suspension of his flying privileges by the DGCA.
“The original crew scheduled for the flight, Captain Sahil Madan and Co-pilot Yash, were last-minute replaced by Kapoor and Co-pilot Shambhavi Pathak, purportedly because the original crew was 'stuck in traffic' at 6.30 am. This explanation is implausible given the time of day,” Rohit stated.
Rohit said Ajit Pawar had originally planned to travel to Pune by road on the evening of January 27 with a full motorcade arranged.
“He remained in Mumbai without disclosed reason. The flight itself was delayed by seventy minutes from its original 7 am departure, with no credible explanation provided. The crew initially requested the safer Runway 29 and then, two minutes later, switched to Runway 11, the more dangerous tabletop runway without any apparent operational justification,” Rohit alleged.
In the final recorded seconds of the flight, co-pilot Shambhavi Pathak said something while Kapoor was entirely silent.
This complete absence of response from the commanding pilot in a life-threatening emergency is consistent with either incapacitation due to alcohol or deliberate inaction.
