levelling serious allegation against a private nursing home following the death of a premature baby, the aggrieved family members submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate SA Murugeshan on Monday, seeking a probe. They also met the Chief Minister and apprised him of their view of the baby’s death. Three more families also have charged the same nursing home with similar allegations.
Gaurav Ahuja, the father of the deceased baby, said, “We believe that our baby has not died and the nursing home staffers have done something with it. The staffers and the doctors refused to show us the video footage of the CCTV camera even when we insisted. We also met the Chief Minister and he promised a fair investigation”.
Sanjay Pathak, a resident of Roorkee, who had slapped a similar complaint on the private facility, said that had latest case not been highlighted he would have never have come up with his charge. “We lost our premature baby boy some three years ago. We filled complaints but the police did nothing and defended the facility. But now it is difficult for them to defend the nursing home as a number of families has alleged the same. We will not keep quiet until a proper investigation is ordered by the officials.,” he added.
Showing empathy for the complaining families, a local BJP leader Himanshu Pundir said that his party is standing by the complainants. “If a fair investigation is not ordered in 24 hours we might go for a bandh,” he warned.
Notably, the family took the premature baby girl who was born on July 8 to the nursing home to ensure that she was kept under the doctors care’ there. On July 9, the family received a phone from the hospital which said that the baby died. When the family came back home they checked the papers of the nursing home and found that the sex of the baby was mentioned as male in some papers and female in others. After the mistake was discovered, the family members went to the hospital and suggested a DNA test of the baby. later, they found that the body of the baby was missing. As per sources, the same had happened to three other families as per the complaints lodged.
Interestingly, the sweeper of the nursing home who was asked to do the burial service of the baby filled a case against the father Gaurav Ahuja under SC/ST Act. The family alleged that the nursing home has a high -profile link which is why they are trying by all means to suppress the case.