A government medical team headed by a surgeon on Tuesday checked Birbhum district Trinamul Congress president Anubrata Mondal at his Bolpur residence and advised him rest on a day the CBI summoned him for questioning on Wednesday in an alleged cattle smuggling case.
The health department’s despatch of on-duty government doctors to Mondal’s home for check-up drew flak from Opposition parties. Sources said a CBI official had visited Mondal’s house on Tuesday morning and served him a notice summoning him for questioning in Calcutta on Wednesday.
The notice was served after he had not appeared before the central agency for questioning on Monday. This will be the 10th time that the Trinamul leader is being summoned by CBI in connection with its probe into an alleged cattle smuggling case.Instead of facing the sleuths on Monday, Mondal complained of sickness and visited the government-run SSKM Hospital in Calcutta, where a seven-member team of physicians ruled out the need to admit him for treatment.
A three-member medical team headed by a surgeon of Bolpur subdivisional hospital, Chandranath Adhikari, on Tuesday visited Mondal’s house on a directive of the superintendent of Bolpur hospital Buddhadeb Murmu.After spending over an hour, Adhikari stepped out of Mondal’s home and said the leader was checked for “fistula” and advised rest at home.
A special diet chart has been prepared for the leader. Sources said Mondal had been advised against undertaking a long journey.“He is suffering from acute exacerbation of COPD along with acute inflammation of perianal fistula. I suggested that he rest at home and be provided with supportive medicine,” said Adhikari.
Asked why a doctor had been sent to Mondal’s doorstep, Murmu initially told reporters that he had sent the team following directions from higher authorities. However, later, he did not take calls or reply to a text message from this newspaper asking who the higher authority was.Sources said sending a medical team to Mondal’s house had embarrassed the health department officials and many felt it should not have been done after an SSKM panel of doctors had ruled out his need for admission less than 24 hours ago.
“The hospital authorities had sent teams without consulting senior health officials, including the chief medical officer of health Himadri Ari in Suri. Anubrata was under treatment of a medical team with SSKM hospital. If there was any emergency, the leader could be admitted to Bolpur hospital. There was no need to send doctors to his home,” said a senior health official in Calcutta.
Taking strong objection to Tuesday’s incident, a forum of government doctors has demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident and accused the administration of piling pressure on the medical fraternity.“We demand a high-level inquiry into the incident. If higher authorities had compelled health officials to undertake the check-up, they should be identified and punished. If any doctor has violated medical ethics in carrying out the order, action should also be taken against the person,” said Swapan Biswas of the Service Doctors’ Forum.
BJP leader Anupam Hazra in a tweet criticised the decision to send doctors to Mondal’s home.“I knew that the patients needed to go to the government hospitals for treatment. But it turned opposite in the case of an influential Trinamul leader of Birbhum who was declined admission by SSKM hospital. The doctors of Bolpur super-speciality hospital are providing treatment at his doorstep leaving the hospital on duty in a bid to save him from CBI. Can we expect these doctors to extend their service at the doorstep of common people in future...,” Hazra said in his tweet.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty questioned the role of the hospital to send on-duty doctors in the service of Mondal, whose role in the cattle-smuggling case was being investigated by the CBI.“He travelled to Bolpur from Calcutta a day ago and did not require rest. Why did the government authorities send doctors to his house?” Chakraborty said.
Away in Calcutta, senior officials of the central investigating agency met at Nizam Palace on Tuesday soon after one of the additional directors of the CBI reached Calcutta apparently to oversee the progress in the probe into the alleged cattle-smuggling case.Sources said, the CBI wanted to quiz Mondal after it received multiple inputs from the Trinamul leader’s bodyguard Saigal Hossain.
With the Bolpur doctor advising rest, till late Tuesday evening it was not clear whether the Trinamul leader would be turning up to face the CBI interrogators."The Birbhum raids have thrown up several leads and we would like to verify some of the information that has reached us with Anubrata during our interrogation," said a senior CBI official.
"If he fails to turn up, we will have to decide on the next course of action."Last Wednesday, the CBI had raided six different locations across Birbhum in connection with its ongoing probe into the alleged cattle smuggling case. Six teams had raided residences of local Trinamul Congress leaders including Kerim Khan and his close associate Ziaul Haque, at Illambazar and Nanoor. A separate team had also raided the house of stone merchant Tudu Mondal, believed to be a close aide of Anubrata. Officers said all of them were allegedly involved with cattle smuggling and had received their huge amounts as paybacks.
