KOLKATA: Trouble mounted for TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee after the parents of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl alleged that their daughter’s right arm was amputated from the shoulder following a change in her course of treatment after they were persuaded to shift from AIIMS, New Delhi, to the Sebashraay health camps promoted by the Diamond Harbour MP, news agency PTI reported.The fresh complaint comes within days of another woman alleging that she lost a leg following treatment for knee pain at a Sebashraay camp, prompting the West Bengal health department to step in and initiate a probe, PTI reported.As per the report, the complaint lodged at the Bishnupur Police Station in South 24 Parganas names Abhishek Banerjee as an accused alongside others, including former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen, now-arrested local MLA Dilip Mondal and Ayan Ghosh Dastidar, a staffer at Banerjee’s Camac Street office in Kolkata.The parents of the toddler also alleged that the TMC had published pictures of the family alongside Banerjee as testimony to the “success” of Sebashraay in its pre-poll report card without their written or verbal consent, PTI said.In her complaint, Ruma Manna, mother of three-and-a-half-year-old Kriti Manna, said her daughter was born with a rare and complicated intravenous ailment which hampered blood flow and had been undergoing treatment and follow-up at AIIMS, New Delhi, since March 2024.Manna claimed she and her husband, struggling to keep up with treatment costs, had approached Banerjee for medical and financial assistance. Instead, she said, the family was persuaded to continue treatment at Sebashraay camps, PTI reported.The complainant stated that at the insistence of local TMC leaders, the family subsequently visited three Sebashraay camps where doctors provided prescriptions.The leaders also arranged a meeting with Abhishek Banerjee at one of the camps.“Despite me telling him (Banerjee) that all we seek is financial assistance to enable us to continue medical attention at the AIIMS, the MP assured us of improved treatment facilities at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital,” she said.“As a helpless mother with limited education, I reposed my trust in the elected representative and his office representatives and decided to continue with my daughter’s treatment in Bengal,” she wrote in her complaint.She added that despite those assurances, the family received no special attention at RG Kar hospital and, following deterioration of her daughter’s condition, the facility referred the patient back to AIIMS, New Delhi.According to the complaint, in a subsequent examination by a multidisciplinary team of doctors at a Bengaluru-based hospital, Kriti was diagnosed with life-threatening advancement of the disease that had spread to other parts of the body.“The medical board first performed an embolisation to mitigate the threat to my daughter’s life and subsequently decided to perform a right shoulder disarticulation surgery on my daughter after finding that no other treatment avenues were open,” Manna said.She demanded an “independent, impartial and scientific probe” into the case, focusing on those responsible for the alteration of treatment course, possible lapses in treatment and referral, and the medical logic behind Kriti’s treatment at RG Kar hospital and its subsequent referral to AIIMS.“Abhishek Banerjee is solely responsible for the family’s plight. He even marketed the kid for his own gains by printing her picture in a political pamphlet, violating the norms of the Juvenile Act. The family is now rightly seeking justice,” alleged BJP leader Abhijit Das.According to PTI, multiple FIRs have been lodged against Banerjee and his Sebashraay camps across Diamond Harbour over the past few weeks alleging treatment lapses and violations of medical ethics and norms, prompting the state health department to constitute a special probe committee.The latest allegations come days after another FIR was registered against Banerjee following a complaint by Maheshtala resident Malati Biswas, who alleged that she lost her right leg after undergoing treatment linked to Sebashraay camps, PTI reported.According to the complaint lodged by her husband Prabir Biswas at the Rabindranagar Police Station on July 9, Malati Biswas had attended a Sebashraay health camp on February 8 after being encouraged by a former local TMC councillor to seek treatment for chronic knee pain caused by osteoarthritis.She was prescribed medicines allegedly by a medical examiner who did not reveal his full name or medical registration number on the prescription. As her condition deteriorated, she approached a second Sebashraay “model” camp, where she alleged doctors demanded a large sum of money for treatment and referred her to a government hospital after she declined to pay.Biswas was later referred to MR Bangur government hospital and subsequently admitted to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital on March 19, where she underwent total knee replacement surgery on April 25.Following the development of an acute post-operative vascular complication in her right leg, an above-knee amputation had to be performed on May 27, her husband alleged in the police complaint.An official at the Rabindranagar Police Station confirmed that an FIR had been registered against Abhishek Banerjee and some others based on the complaint and that further investigation was underway.Abhijit Das, who assisted the family in filing the complaint, said the state government was taking the matter seriously.“The health minister understood the gravity of the complaint and has asked Malati and her family to visit Swasthya Bhavan with relevant papers. He has spoken to her over the phone and collected information about how she was treated,” Das said.State health minister Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay had earlier said that the government would not resort to any knee-jerk reaction over the complaint.“We will hear both sides of the story, from the complainant and from the accused. If we find that there is sufficient prima facie basis for filing such a complaint, we will then question the doctors involved as well as the political figures behind this. If required, we will take police help to summon the accused irrespective of their political standings,” the minister said.In the wake of the complaints, Mukhopadhyay also said the health department would assist investigators in unearthing the truth behind the allegations.“Why were such camps operated, if not to conduct a drama? To use them to benefit in electoral politics and as a political trump card. The people of Bengal paid the price for his electoral gains,” Mukhopadhyay had said in apparent reference to Abhishek Banerjee, PTI reported.(With agency inputs)
