Balasore: Tension ran high at the district hospital here Monday night after a Class 9 student of the Bala Ashram School near Sahadevkhunta died while undergoing treatment there. The deceased was Santosh Mallick, son of Shankar Mallick of Tapaswi village near here. The death occurred after his fall from a tree and serious head injury.
Family members accused the school authorities of negligence and delay in admitting the boy to the hospital. Protesting family members and relatives thronged the hospital premises.
The school authorities explained that Santosh fell from a tree in the school premises while he climbed it to pluck black berries in the evening. With critical injuries on the right side of his head, the boy suffered brain haemorrhage. Though the school authorities admitted him to the Balasore DHH, he died there.
Soon after the boy’s death news reached his village, his family members rushed to the hospital and created a ruckus. They accused the school authorities of killing the boy.
“I suspect the school authorities’ hand in the ‘murder’ of my child. I had gone to the ashram to bring my son for holidays in the morning, but the caretaker of the school, Mamata, did not allow me do this. All of a sudden, now they are saying my boy fell off a tree and died. I want my child back,” said the deceased’s mother Kanak Mallick.
Balasore collector Ramesh Rout along with the sub-collector and tehsildar reached the hospital and granted a Rs 20,000 compensation from the Red Cross fund to the kin of the deceased. They tried to pacify the angry locals. He also promised them of action against the guilty once the post-mortem report came.
Remuna MLA Gobinda Chandra Das who also reached the spot demanded a compensation of Rs 10lakh to the family of the deceased. The body has been sent for autopsy and an investigation is under way. Tension continued for a while.
PNN
