Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (MS) 

Udupi, Jul 28: A case stands registered and investigation is in progress on the incident of finding alcohol in the distilled water that was supplied to Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Mother-Children Hospital in the city. 

Distilled water cans were supplied to the hospital by a person called Ajith on May 13. There were no labels on three cans among the 13 supplied. They were sent back to him. The rest three cans were received by Gokul, the store executive of the hospital. Out of the three, two were manufactured in 2019. One can had the batch number of 21/2017. The distilled water in this particular can was filled to the humidifiers of the hospital on June 4.  

On the afternoon of June 4, when supervisor Sandesh and nurse Drayan brought the stretchers near the consultation room and tried to fit cylinders to the stretcher, some droplets fell on their hands and they felt the cool feeling of ice. When they inspected, the smell of spirit was emanating from the humidifier. So the respective distilled water was sent to the laboratory in Bengaluru for testing. It came to light that the distilled water sent for testing contained 53.43% of alcohol in it. 

A case is registered in the city police station, based on the complaint filed by the manager of the hospital Prashant Mallya, in which he has accused vested interests of deliberately doing the said act in order to defame the chief of the hospital and also to cause danger to the patients who are being treated in the hospital. 

The police team led by Anant Padmanabha, station officer of Udupi, has begun the investigation and the process of confiscating the distilled water cans is in progress.