Butcher of Bilaspur? Doctor claims Chhattisgarh govt, faulty drugs cause of deaths

The doctor involved in the sterilisation operations in Bilaspur, which had led to the death of over 13 women, has been arrested by the Chhattisgarh police in an overnight raid, news channels reported on Thursday. Other doctors who assisted in the operations and are currently untraceable will also be nabbed soon, police officials have said. [caption id=“attachment_1799621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh meets one of the victims of the botched sterilisation operations. PTI[/caption] Shockingly, the 59-year-old RK Gupta had been awarded earlier this year for a record 50,000 sterilisation surgeries in his career. However, speaking to Reuters, Gupta denied that he was at fault and blamed the government for failing to control the number of people turning up at the sterilisation camp. He also denied that his equipment was rusty or dirty. “It is up to the administration to decide how many women would be kept for operation,” a visibly upset Gupta told Reuters from the police station where he is being held in custody. “If they kept in that place 83 women, it is my moral responsibility to operate (on) all the women. If I decline to do that I would have faced public agitation,” said Gupta, who was awarded a state honour 10 years ago for his sterilisation work. Gupta further said that the possible cause of death could have been faulty medication that was handed out by health workers. They gave the women ciprofloxacin, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, and ibuprofen, a pain killer, after the operations, which were conducted in a shut private hospital. On Wednesday, the government banned five batches of drugs and a batch of surgical cotton wool. He has been charged with section 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and other relevant sections of IPC, the IG said. Gupta was presented the award on Republic Day 2014, according to this NDTV report . The doctor has been accused of operating on more than 80 women in just a few hours with the help of two assistants in an abandoned private hospital, officials said, contravening government guidelines to limit such operations to 30 a day. “The women were allegedly made to lie on the floor for the operation and there wasn’t enough equipment,” added the NDTV report. The women fell ill at a so-called family planning camp at a village in Chhattisgarh on Saturday. Such camps are held regularly, part of a long-running effort to control the booming population. “Preliminary reports show that the medicines administered were spurious and also the equipment used was rusted,” senior local government official Siddharth Komal Singh Pardeshi told Reuters. A tubectomy procedure is considered major surgery but doctors in India often exceed daily limits. Before guidelines were set, there were reports that doctors carried out as many as 200 surgeries a day, said Suneeta Mittal, head of gynaecology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute near New Delhi. The Chief Minister’s Office of Chhattisgarh tweeted on Wednesday that a team of special doctors from AIIMS had arrived at Bilaspur via a special plane.

The CMO also tweeted that Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh had talked to Union Health Minister JP Nadda on telephone.

Raman Singh also presided over a meeting with senior officials for assessing the situation.

The sterilisation incident is an embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP rules in Chhattisgarh. He has vowed to reform the nation’s health system. Modi expressed concern over the tragedy on Tuesday. (With additional input from Reuters)