Kalyani, Aug. 27: A nine year’s polio affected boy from Bihar, who cannot walk, went missing from Kalyani based Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial hospital on Saturday night for the consecutive second occasion since August 20 after he was admitted there by a youth on August 11.
The repeated disappearance of the boy, whose two legs are paralytic, has raised suspicion of his possible kidnapping since the youth who recovered the boy from Kanchrapara rail station alleged negligence by the hospital authorities and also lodged a police complaint.
The boy, who identified himself as Ranjan Paswan and a resident of Barauni in the Begusarai district of Bihar, was apparently abandoned by his parents on Kanchrapar rail station last week.
Vinay Bharadwaz, a resident of Heulet Road in Kanchrapara, recovered the boy on August 11 night when he was shivering in fever on Kanchrapara rail station. Vinay with help of GRP and some of his friends took the boy to JNM hospital in Kalyani later in the same night.
However, on August 20, the hospital authority informed him that ‘unknown’ boy went missing. The hospital authorities lodged a missing diary with Kalyani police, which, however, recovered the child from Kalyani Simanta rail station on the same day and brought back to the hospital. But, he went missing again mysteriously on Saturday night.
Vinay said, “It was very shocking that how a boy, who cannot walk, could go missing from the ward of well guarded medical college hospital. Since the admission of the boy, I was in touch with police and hospital authority. The police, however, managed to find him out on the first occasion. I personally appealed the Kalyani’s sub-divisional officer and hospital’s patients’ welfare committee to take stock of the situation and to handover the child to any state-run home. But, to my utter surprise, the boy went missing again. This shows sheer negligence on the part of the officials and security personnel of the hospital”.
The hospital authority on Sunday morning called Vinay only to inform him that the boy went missing again on Saturday night.
Vinay, who runs a web portal said, “I was very much shocked once again hearing about the boy’s disappearance. It is quite unbelievable to me that a boy who is ill and cannot walk due to polio-affected legs can go missing on his own from a multistoried hospital. I strongly suspect foul play behind his disappearance. I do not rule out the possibility of his kidnapping from the hospital. I am quite shocked to see the carelessness of the hospital authorities who could not notice the boy disappearing from the hospital”.
While the JNM hospital authorities have lodged a fresh missing diary with Kalyani police, Vinay too has lodged an FIR suspecting a kidnapping possibility of the child. Police have started a probe. However, even after two days of the incident, the sleuths could not so far find out polio-affected physically challenged boy.
JNM hospital’s medical superintendent Avijit Mukherjee said, “We have found the boy mentally unstable. It also appears that he has a habit to escape…He on early occasion had fled. We have lodged a missing diary and requested police to find out the child”.
Vinay said, “I talked to the boy but it never appeared to me that he was mentally unfit. He was ill and was under trauma for the behavior of his parents, who as he claimed abandoned him on Kanchrapara rail station”.
Kalyani’s Sub Divisional officer Dhiman Barui said, “We were in a process to shift the child from the hospital, but he went missing. It is quite concerning that if the boy can not walk, how could he manage to escape. I have requested police to find out the boy”.
Police meanwhile began a probe and decided to examine the video footage of the hospitals.
“We have received a missing diary from the hospital and a complaint from an individual about the disappearance of the boy..a probe has begun..we are trying best to find out the boy”, an officer of Kalyani police said.