New Delhi:
Late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's son Rahul is in critical condition in a city
hospital while his secretary, Vivek Maitra, has died of suspected poisoning after a late
night party.
In a bizarre coincidence, exactly a month after the death of his father, 26-year-old Rahul was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Apollo hospital in south Delhi in an unconscious state on early Friday morning.
Maitra was brought in dead, Apollo hospital spokesperson Karan Thakur said.
Although Rahul's condition is "serious but stable" with his vital parametres functioning normally, Thakur said the hospital was yet to ascertain the exact cause of the suspected poisoning.
"Whether the food poisoning happened because of stale eatables or some poisonous substance was mixed with the food we cannot say at the moment," he
added.
A multi-disciplinary medical team headed by Dr Prasad Rao, who is the hospital's internal medicine specialist, is attending to Mahajan who was admitted at 0300 hrs IST, he said.
A police official said, a party was organised last night at Mahajan's Safdarjung Road
residence where Rahul and Maitra reportedly had champagne along with some unidentified persons.
A close
family friend said there were four unidentified men at Mahajan's residence late last night. They are now untraceable.
The domestic help has said he had not seen the persons before. He added, they visited Rahul twice during the night.
A police official said evidence have been "disturbed", some champagne bottles were removed from the scene and kept in a cupboard. Rahulk and Maitra had apparently thrown up, but the vomit has been cleaned up, he added.
Some "white powder" was also recovered from the residence. It has been has been sent for chemical examination, he said.
Mahajan's family has been informed and his uncle and Maharashtra BJP legislature party leader Gopinath Munde and relatives are on their way to the Capital.
Rahul was scheduled to leave for Guwahati via Kolkata by air on Friday morning to immerse his late father's ashes in the
Brahmaputra and offer prayers at the famous Kamakhya temple, family sources said.
Rahul was in the news when he attended the BJP national executive meeting in Delhi early this week, triggering speculation about his possible entry into politics.
Maitra, whose body been has been kept in the hospital mortuary, has been a close associate of the Mahajan family for many years.
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