Gonda, Aug 30 (PTI) Two days after the death of a newborn baby at a government hospital here, police have registered a case against a local journalist for allegedly assaulting some women staff at the medical facility and using casteist remarks against them.
The journalist, identified as Uma Nath Tiwari, had visited the Mujehna community health centre (CHC) on Sunday after the news about the death of the infant spread in the area, police said, adding the FIR under relevant sections of IPC and the SC/ST Act was registered on Monday evening at Dhanepur police station.
Additional Superintendent of Police Shivraj on Tuesday said that the case was registered on the basis of three complaints by superintendent of CHC Dr Suman Mishra and 65 other workers.
He said the IPC sections under which the case has been registered included sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 384 (extortion), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).
The matter is being probed by circle officer (Sadar).
Meanwhile, local journalists under the banner of Patrakar Sangharsh Samiti on Tuesday in a letter addressed to additional chief secretary (home) and additional chief secretary (information) sought a high-level probe into the incident.
They also alleged that Dr Suman Mishra got the case registered to exert pressure on them.
On Saturday night, a woman named Saira Bano, a resident of village Bachhaipur in Dhanepur police station area of the district, was admitted to the Mujehna CHC following labour pain and gave birth to a child, who died shortly after birth, police had said.
However, the family had alleged that the CHC staff shifted the newborn to another ward, saying that the child needed oxygen but on Sunday morning, the staff told them that the newborn had died.
According to the family, when they saw the baby, they came to know that some animal had bitten it and immediately informed the senior administrative officials about the incident and informed the local police, alleging that the hospital staff’s negligence led to the death of the baby. Police officials said that the post-mortem report says that death took place due to suffocation, while a doctor said that the death of the child took place possibly due to consumption of bad quality of water before birth.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Rashmi Verma said that the death of the child took place possibly due to consumption of bad quality of water before birth.
An official inquiry report earlier has dismissed the allegation that the newborn baby died after being bitten by an animal in the CHC.
District Magistrate Ujjawal Kumar, who had constituted a two-member inquiry committee to look into the matter on Sunday, described the incident as ‘wrong’ and said the woman had given birth to a dead child.
Kumar, in a statement issued late on Sunday night, said the probe team which visited the hospital has found that the family had taken the infant’s body home in the night but had brought it back in the morning.
The family made the allegations on the instigation of some people, he said. PTI CORR NAV KVK KVK
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