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More than a week after the police seized an ECG machine and monitor from King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital as part of its investigation into a fire that left two-month-old Prince Rajbhar with 22% burns, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Kalina is yet to receive the equipment.

Prince died of cardiac arrest on Friday, after suffering burns on his left side on November 7. He had initially been admitted to KEM Hospital to treat a congenital heart condition.

As HT had previously reported, Prince’s father Pannelal filed a police complaint on November 13 and the police seized the ECG machine and monitor from KEM Hospital the same day. However, till Saturday evening, the FSL had not received the equipment. Deputy commissioner of police Saurabh Tripathi told HT he was unaware of any development.

The ECG machine and monitor are critical to the investigation since the minor blaze of November 7 was caused by a short circuit, which led to nodes attached to the ECG machine catching fire.

“So far, we have received the foam of the bed that caught fire. We would run an analysis to find any tissue on it to confirm it belonged to the victim [Prince]. We haven’t received any other equipment or parts from the hospital,” said a senior officer from the FSL. He also said the FSL wouldn’t be able to say if the equipment had malfunctioned. “We can only run a test to identify any blood or tissue on it. The responsibility of a mechanical engineer to identify the reason for the short circuit,” said the officer.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) internal investigation, headed by Dr Ramesh Bharmal, is relying on the police report on the equipment. “The police have taken the machines and we need to check those to understand who is at a fault,” said Dr Bharmal.

The committee has spoken to approximately 25 people including eye witnesses, hospital staffers and Prince’s relatives. Dr. Bharmal said they expected to submit the report to the BMC on Monday. “But we won’t be able to give any statement on the condition of the machines as we don’t have any report from police,” he said.

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