Bid to discharge Datia stampede victims in a hurry

Many of the Ratangarh stampede victims got a rude shock on Wednesday morning when they were issued discharge slips by the Datia district hospital.

The move allegedly came soon after the district administration came to know that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi might visit the patients on Thursday during his tour to the state.

Some of the patients who were issued discharge slips had spoken of police atrocities — throwing people, dead and alive, into the river and also snatching jewellery and purses from victims -- during the stampede.

Nineteen of the 47 victims admitted to the hospital were asked to leave ahead of Gandhi’s visit. Soon the patients and their relatives created a ruckus at the hospital with workers of opposition Congress joining in, following which the hospital administration beat a hasty retreat.

“My wife Bhuri’s leg has swollen and it is painful. Even last night the doctor on duty advised her to remain in the hospital. But in the morning we were told to leave,” Sobran Kushwaha told reporters outside the hospital.

Sobran alleged the hospital wanted them to leave as he had spoken against the police.

Chief medical health officer Dr RS Gupta said the discharge tickets were cancelled and patients were allowed to stay till full recovery.

Gandhi, meanwhile, revised his tour programme to poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Now, he would first visit the Datia district hospital to meet the devotees injured in the Ratangarh temple stampede before addressing public meetings at Shahdol and Gwalior later in the day.