Ahmednagar– In a shocking revelation from the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, six doctors in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district (formerly Ahilyanagar) have been booked for culpable homicide, fraud, and forgery after allegedly falsifying a 79-year-old man’s COVID test results and administering a high-risk injection to his lifeless body. The case, which surfaced in 2020, gained fresh momentum following a Bombay High Court directive, exposing layers of medical negligence and cover-up at a local hospital.
The victim, Babanrao Khokarale, a resident of the district, was rushed to the facility on August 17, 2020, amid the height of the pandemic. According to an investigation report by the district civil surgeon, the six accused doctors—whose identities have not been disclosed—declared him COVID-19 positive based on a fabricated report, without conducting proper tests or examinations. This led to the administration of inappropriate treatments, which the family claims hastened his demise.
Babanrao breathed his last at 8:30 AM on August 18, 2020. Yet, just 90 minutes later, at 10 AM, hospital records show he was given a Remdesivir injection—a potent antiviral drug used for severe COVID cases—without any vital checks. The civil surgeon’s 2021 probe starkly noted: “According to the treatment records and drug distribution chart, the patient was given a Remdesivir injection at 10 AM on August 18, while he had already died at 8:30 AM on the same day.”
Compounding the horror, the hospital’s official death summary, filed two days later on August 20, attributed Babanrao’s passing to “COVID-19 pneumonitis, cytokine storm, and respiratory failure.” To this day, the family has never received his body, and the hospital maintains no records of its disposal, raising suspicions of a deliberate concealment to sustain the false COVID narrative—possibly to claim government reimbursements or inflate case numbers during the crisis.
Ashok Khokarale, the deceased’s son and a relentless advocate for justice, first approached authorities in 2021 after the civil surgeon’s report flagged gross negligence. Undeterred by the local police’s refusal to file a First Information Report (FIR), he escalated the matter through the courts. In 2021, he secured a civil writ petition for access to the probe documents. By 2022, a criminal writ petition followed, highlighting the police inaction despite clear evidence.
On October 15, 2025, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court intervened decisively, ordering the Topkhana police station to register an FIR and launch a thorough investigation. Within days, charges under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 420 (cheating and fraud), and 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code were slapped against the six doctors. “This is not just negligence; it’s a betrayal of trust at a time when lives hung by a thread,” Ashok told reporters outside the court, vowing to pursue the case until accountability is served.
The incident underscores the chaos and ethical lapses that plagued India’s healthcare system during the pandemic, where overzealous reporting and inadequate oversight led to similar scandals nationwide. As the investigation unfolds, questions loom: How many more such cases remain buried in paperwork? The Khokarale family, still grieving without closure, hopes this FIR marks the beginning of real reform.
Authorities have yet to comment on potential motives, but the civil surgeon’s findings point to systemic irregularities in treatment protocols and documentation. The case is now under active probe, with the accused doctors summoned for questioning. Updates are expected as forensic and medical experts review the hospital’s records.
