Lab technician gets jail for 'declaring' man HIV+

NAGPUR: 

Soumittra S Bose, TNN

Ad-hoc judge KL Vyas has sentenced a pathology laboratory technician to five years in jail for abetting the suicide of a man who ended life after being informed that he is HIV affected. The court also awarded a compensation of 1 lakh to the man's mother who is his sole survivor.

The accused has also been slapped with one-and-half-year jail term and an additional fine of Rs 1,500 following the conviction in different provisions of the Medical Practitioners' Act. The verdict was announced on Thursday.

The court held Mahesh Wadnerkar, a diploma holder in medical laboratory technology, guilty for the suicide of Nandakishore Ghorpade who hanged himself after consuming insecticide on March 8, 2006.

The incident had taken place at Ambala Deshmukh village in Narkhed. Ghorpade, who was supposed to marry within a fortnight, was told on March 1 that he was infected with HIV, by Wadnerkar of Renuka Pathology Laboratory in Narkhed. Unconfirmed reports say that Wadnerkar was also the owner of the lab.
Though a Mumbai-based laboratory clarified the following day that the mandatory tests of HIV were negative for Ghorpade, Wadnerkar apparently held back the information. He also asked Ghorpade to bring Rs 1300 for the report.