The Ministry of Health has sent the suspended Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Colombo, Dr. M.N. Ruhul Haq on compulsory leave.
Accordingly, steps were taken to send him on compulsory leave with effect from August 17, under the recommendations of the Public Services Commission.
Despite a suspension imposed by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), Dr. Haq had performed the post-mortems of the well-known late businessman Dinesh Schaffter, whose murder still remains a mystery, and the child who died at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children in Colombo following a kidney surgery.
The SLMC gave Dr. Ruhul Haq (SLMC Registration 15168) an 8-month suspension with effect from December 20, 2022, after an inquiry into the complaint made by Mr. S.A. Rathnasena.
The council’s website mentions, “The Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) has decided that commencing from the 20th of December 2022 Dr. Ruhul Haq should be imposed a suspension for a period of eight (08) months from exercising his rights, privileges and immunities conferred upon him by registration as a Medical Practitioner in terms of the provisions of the Disciplinary
Regulations published in the Extraordinary Gazette Notification No 757/7 dated 10th March 1993 and Medical Ordinance No. 26 of 1927 as amended.”
Although the suspension is supposed to come to an end on August 20, 2023, Dr. Haq was found to have been practising during this period and has performed the much-talked-about post-mortems of murdered businessman Dinesh Schaffter and Hamdi Fazleen, a three-year-old who was receiving treatment at the LRH.
In the post-mortem report on Hamdi Fazleen’s death, Dr. Haq had mentioned that the boy was born with only one kidney – a condition called renal agenesis. However, Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya had ordered Borella Police not to continue with the investigations based solely on Dr. Haq’s forensic analysis as contradictions and obscurities in his reports had been confirmed during previous court proceedings.
The Additional Magistrate had previously stated that contradictory particulars were observed in the original report and the final report compiled by Dr. Haq after performing the post-mortem of Dinesh Schaffter.
