The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly was shocked to hear the horror of a 28-days baby boy who was gobbled up (snatched, scratched and eaten) by a stray dog in the TB ward of Sirohi District hospital in the wee hours of Tuesday.
An Independent MLA and chief minister’s advisor Sanyam Lodha recounted the incident in the assembly and blamed it on the negligence of the Health Department.
The ill fated new-born baby sleeping with his mother was taken away by dog (dogs) in the TB ward where his father Mahendra Kumar Meena was undergoing treatment of Tuberculosis, Lodha sais raising the issue by a Point of Information during a debate on Home Department Demands.
When his mother noticed that her baby was missing, she rushed out of the ward and found the mutilated body of the newborn in bushes. The distraught mother watched the dogs snatching, scratching and eating parts of the body helplessly, Lodha said, demanding a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the victim’s family and punishment for the guilty.
The House witnessed chaos when the Parliamentary Affairs and in-charge of Home Department Shanti Dhariwal and Lodha bickered on the role of police Vs the Health Department.
Later, Lodha also met Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena apprising him of the incident and submitted a letter of compensation demand.
When contacted, Chief Medical Officer of Sirohi Rajesh Kumar told SNS that the patient, Mahendra, a resident of Pindwara in Sirohi, is suffering from silicosis and undergoing treatment at TB hospital. On Monday night, his wife Rekha was sleeping with one daughter and two sons on the floor below his bed. Stray dogs roaming in the ward took away his one month old son Vikas.
“Prima facie it is a case of negligence of a security guard and nursing superintendent of the ward, hence the chief executive officer of Sirohi district has taken up a probe and will submit its report soon to the health department”, CMHO said.
Kotwali Police Station has registered a complaint and sent the boy’s body for postmortem during the day. On local TV media, the bereaved mother said that the police had taken her signature/thumb on a plane paper, and after that the body was handed over to them for burial (cremation) after postmortem.
Local BJP leaders also sat on dharna in the hospital campus demanding a strict action against the hospital administration and compensation to the victim’s family.