A two-year-old Mahadalit boy died in his mother’s lap in Jehanabad town on Saturday after his parents apparently failed to get an ambulance to take him to a Patna hospital, 50km away.

The Jehanabad Sadar Hospital (district hospital), which had referred the baby to Patna Medical College and Hospital, has a fleet of ambulances but, according to bereaved father Sunil Manjhi, did not offer him one. The hospital denies the charge.

Sunil later kept banging his head on the steps of a temple outside the district magistrate’s residence in grief and frustration, suffering cuts and bruises.

It led to a commotion after which local administrative officials rushed to the spot. Sunil was treated at the Sadar Hospital from where, ironically, he was sent home to Kinari village in an ambulance.

A weeping Sunil told local reporters he had borrowed money to bring the baby to the district hospital, from where he was referred to the PMCH. The disconsolate father’s version of the events that followed was a little unclear at places.

It isn’t clear why — as he alleges — the hospital didn’t offer one of its own ambulances but Sunil said he had told the doctors he hadn’t any money.

He says he was told to call for an ambulance himself without being given a phone number. He says he didn’t know what to do and nobody came to his help.

Jehanabad civil surgeon Vijay Kumar Sinha denied that Sunil was not provided with an ambulance at the hospital.

“Sunil refused to take the ambulance offered and said he would take the boy on his motorcycle to their home, where he would be all right. He went out and the boy died on the way,” Sinha said.

“Sunil wrote on the ‘bed head ticket’ (which mentions the treatment given to a patient, among other things) that he would not take his son to Patna.”

Sadar Hospital superintendent Vijay Kumar Jha echoed Sinha. He said the baby had “symptoms of pneumonia”.

Sunil and his wife did not say anything about having a motorcycle at hand.

Jehanabad sub-divisional officer Nivedita Kumari said Sunil had told her his son was playing at home when he suddenly fell ill, with foam coming out of his mouth. She too appeared to back the hospital’s version.

“It seems that instead of calling for an ambulance, Sunil and his wife came out with the child in their arms. They perhaps wanted to take them to Patna on their own,” she told The Telegraph.

“However, the boy died a short while later and they were seen crying on the roadside.”

She added that Sunil, his wife and another of their children, who was accompanying them, were brought back to the hospital along with the body.

There, Sunil “was treated for his head injuries and sent to his native place in an ambulance” organised by district authorities.

Jehanabad sub-divisional police officer P.B. Srivastava said he could not ask the distraught Sunil too many questions and helped arrange his journey back to his village.

Asked whether Sunil had a motorcycle with him and had left it while returning to the village in an ambulance, Srivastava said: “It could be true — there should be no surprise in his doing so in the circumstances.”

Sources said the ambulance service at the Sadar Hospital was run by a private firm owned by the family of a politician with links to the ruling NDA, and that it had earlier too been involved in controversy.

In an eerie rerun earlier this month, a boy had died in the arms of his parents after they failed to get an ambulance after the Jehanabad Sadar Hospital referred him to the PMCH. Apparently, the ambulance drivers refused, suspecting the boy had Covid-19.

The parents set off on foot for Patna but the boy died on the way.