New twist to suicide near Assembly, police registers murder case

The death of a 30-year-old man who allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide protesting denial of treatment at SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack took a new turn on Friday as the police in Jagatsinghpur district registered a case of murder in this connection.The man had allegedly consumed pesticide and slit his wrist near Odisha Assembly on Wednesday and subsequently died sparking a state-wide resentment over the alleged negligence of patients in the premier medical college and hospital in Cuttack.

The death of a 30-year-old man who allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide protesting denial of treatment at SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack took a new turn on Friday as the police in Jagatsinghpur district registered a case of murder in this connection.

The man had allegedly consumed pesticide and slit his wrist near Odisha Assembly on Wednesday and subsequently died sparking a state-wide resentment over the alleged negligence of patients in the premier medical college and hospital in Cuttack. He committed suicide for allegedly not getting proper treatment at the hospital.

The deceased Dusmanta Das’s mother Basanti Das, however, in her FIR at the Kujang Police Station in Jagatsinghpur, alleged that her son was killed and he did not commit suicide. How can my son go to Bhubaneswar when he was not able to walk? He was taken by some people to the state capital and also given pesticide bottle to commit suicide, she mentioned in her FIR.

Noting that negligence of treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital is not the lone factor behind her son’s death, the mother demanded stern action against those who took Dusmanta to Bhubaneswar and let him to die.

''We have registered a case under section 302 (murder) at the Kujang Police Station based on the complaint of the deceased person’s mother,'' Jagatsinghpur SP Akhileswar Singh told reporters here.

The SP said the case will be transferred to the Commissionerate Police in Bhubaneswar where the incident occurred.

Meanwhile, the opposition BJP demanded a CBI probe into the death of Das. ''There are several loose ends to Dusmanta’s death case. Why the police conducted his postmortem in the middle of the night and his funeral took place in a hurry at Puri instead of his village,'' asked senior BJP leader Manmohan Samal.

The saffron party asked the state government to provide financial assistance of Rs 30 lakh to the deceased’s 3-year-old daughter, Rs 20 lakh to his elderly parents and a job for his wife.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik in a statement said that Dusmanta’s death exposes the real picture of the health services being provided to the people in Odisha. People are attempting self-immolation near Assembly and consuming pesticide after being denied justice, he said.

Meanwhile, the SCB Medical College Hospital authorities based on a probe committee report rejected the allegation that Das was prematurely discharged from the hospital in July last year due to COVID.

Das before being taken to hospital after consuming pesticide had told reporters that he was denied readmission for an unhealed wound on his leg while a private hospital refused him free treatment under the government’s healthcare scheme.

However, the SCB probe panel comprising seven senior doctors told the government that there was neither denial of free treatment nor medical negligence in the patient’s discharge.