A bench of Justices A K Mathur and Aftab Alam directed the petitioners to approach the trial court for relief.

Eleven Apollo staffers including six doctors, who were charged with misleading the investigation and tampering with the evidence, in a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court sought quashing of the FIR which was registered by the police at Sarita Vihar police station following ACMM’s orders in June 2006.

Earlier in February this year, the Delhi High Court had rejected the petitioners’ submission that their names have not figured in the main FIR lodged against Mahajan and five others for drugs abuse and criminal conspiracy, following which they had come on an SLP in the Supreme Court.

The hospital staff have alleged that the investigation in the second FIR was mala fide as SHO, Tughlak Road, was already investigating into the main case and the investigations launched against them by the Sarita Vihar police was “discriminatory” and “arbitrary” in nature.

The case was registered with an ulterior motive to damage the reputation of the hospital, they claimed.