'Fear for My Child': Doctor Who Prescribed Bed Rest to TMC Leader Arrested by CBI Says He Was Forced

A doctor who had examined Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal alleged on Wednesday that he had been forced to prescribe bed rest to the accused in a cattle smuggling case.

The TMC Birbhum president was arrested on Thuesday after he evaded CBI summons for the 10th time, citing health problems. He attached copies of two prescriptions along with his letter and sought two weeks from the officers of the probe agency to appear before them at its city office, said sources.

The prescriptions were from doctors of SSKM and Bolpur hospitals.

Dr Chandranath Adhikari from the Bolpur sub-divisional hospital said to reporters that the hospital superintendent, Dr Buddhadeb Murmu, had ordered him to visit Mondal’s residence for a medical check-up.

He told News18: “My first doubts started emerging when the superintendent told me to write a prescription on a blank piece of paper. Then, while I was coming back after seeing him, a male nurse called me to say that the hospital authority had asked me not to use the hospital seal. Then their game became clear to me. My conscience pushed me to come out with the truth. If I would have been alone I would not have been afraid, but now I fear because I have a small child. We have a high-class super-speciality hospital but there are people at the lower level who are corrupt.”

He also released an audio clip of his purported interaction with the superintendent of the hospital.

On Tuesday morning, soon after Central Bureau of Investigation officials reached Mondal’s residence at Bolpur in Birbhum district to hand over the summons for an appearance at the agency’s Kolkata office on Wednesday by 11am, a team of doctors from Bolpur sub-divisional hospital also arrived there. Following the initial check-up, the medical team came out after submitting medical advice for 14 days of bed rest for Mondal on a plain sheet of paper.

Dr Murmu, who is on leave till August 10, said the Birbhum district administration had asked him to send a medical team to Mondal’s house.

“Even though I am on leave, I am obliged to send a medical team after receiving instructions from the district administration,” he told the media.

(With agency inputs)

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