Probe ordered after Jharkhand woman who was told her foetus had died gives birth to baby boy

The couple then went to a private hospital, Saint Columba Mission Hospital, where Manisha gave birth to a healthy child, the official said.

When contacted, Hazaribagh Deputy Commissioner Shashi Prakash said a three-member fact-finding committee has been constituted to investigate the issue.

“An inquiry is underway, and until the report is submitted, it would be premature to comment or take action. Both parties will present their versions, and only after an impartial inquiry can any decision be made,” he said.

The issue took a political turn when the patient’s husband claimed he had received support from Sanjeevani Seva Kutir — a private help desk started in January by Hazaribagh’s BJP MLA Pradip Prasad. The next day, BJP MP Manish Jaiswal visited the hospital to meet the superintendent, who was not found in his office.

While addressing the media at the hospital, Jaiswal said he had spoken to the couple and that no doctor was available at night.

“We demand justice for the poor woman, as she was forced to turn to an unaffordable private hospital after being let down by the government facility. We also demand action from the Health Minister against the woman doctor who was supposed to be on duty at night,” he said.

In response, Health Minister Irfan Ansari said in a press statement that the woman doctor at the centre of the controversy had termed the allegations against her “false and politically motivated”.

According to the minister, the doctor had tendered her resignation, marked to Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Ansari.

“I was on-call duty and reached the hospital as soon as I was informed. However, a few people, allegedly backed by the BJP, started creating a ruckus and tried to intimidate me. The issue is now being given an unnecessary political angle,” Ansari quoted the doctor as having written in her statement.

She also accused Sanjeevani Seva Kutir of “effectively turning [the hospital] into a BJP office where illegal activities occurred at night”.

Responding to the allegations, BJP’s Hazaribagh BJP MLA Pradip Prasad said that the volunteers of organisation “had merely exposed the hospital’s poor condition”

“If anyone can prove the Seva Kutir was functioning as a BJP office, I will resign,” Prasad told the media Friday. Calls to Sanjeevani Seva Kutir went unanswered.