New Delhi: Four bright pink incubators stood empty inside the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Hira’s Multispeciality Hospital on Thursday morning, a day after the facility’s 47-year-old managing doctor and owner, Dr Viveki Kapoor, was arrested in connection with an alleged child trafficking racket.
The four-storey hospital, tucked away in a narrow lane of northwest Delhi’s Begum Pur in Rohini, wore a deserted look. Photographs of newborn babies lined the walls, including one showing Dr Viveki cradling an infant. Her cabin remained open, with medical certificates for the facility neatly displayed on a shelf.
For residents of the locality, the allegations came as a shock. Few could have imagined that the modest neighbourhood facility, which began operating about seven years ago, would find itself at the centre of a child trafficking probe.
Standing outside the hospital, 27-year-old Shakib struggled to reconcile the news with his own experience. Nearly two months ago, after his wife delivered a baby girl at a govt hospital, he had brought her to Hira’s for postpartum care after her stitches came undone. “We were the only patients there at the time,” he recalled. “The doctor was sweet and understanding. I can’t even imagine that something like this could have been happening.”
A local said the owner has more properties in the same lane, a claim being verified by police. According to residents, the hospital rarely appeared busy, with most locals preferring a nearby gynaecology centre. Several neighbours said they had seldom seen patients entering or leaving the building. One of the locals, who visited the facility once after his blood pressure rapidly shot up, recalled seeing only one other patient at the time.
Mahesh Kumar, 30, a member of the area’s RWA, said the doctor largely kept to herself and had little interaction with the community. A local domestic help, not wishing to be named, said patient footfall was generally sparse and he would sometimes spot a group of men that he grew to recognise over time.
Among those grappling directly with the fallout is Dr Mohammad Rafique, a 27-year-old dentist who runs a clinic as a tenant in the hospital’s basement. Having shifted there only three months ago, he now finds himself searching for new premises. “She used to call me ‘beta’,” Rafique said, sitting in his cabin. “Even when cops came yesterday, she told them that my work was separate from hers. I never imagined she could do something like this.”
A look at the online reviews, rated 4.5 stars, echoes the sentiment. “We had a safe, normal delivery under the care of Dr Viveki Kapoor. She is very experienced, calm, and supportive,” said a review from five months ago.
The facility’s ground floor housed a small pharmacy and eight beds: four in the general ward and four in the ICU. A narrow staircase led to the upper floor, where a seven-bed ward, a locked operation theatre and several semi-private rooms with two beds each stood. Clothes, utensils and other household belongings were scattered across unfinished rooms on the second floor, while construction material lay piled in corners. The upper floors opened onto terrace spaces. Yet, the entire building remained hauntingly frozen with full syringes and tiny oxygen masks lying untouched on the NICU beds.
