Odisha: 13-year-old boy dies as quack administers wrong injection

KENDRAPARA: A 13-year-old boy, Subrat Barik, died on Sunday after being administered wrong injection by a quack in Balikana village under Rajnagar police station in Kendrapara district.

The quack, identified as Indrajit Biswas, was arrested by the police after the incident based on a complaint filed by the deceased’s father Meghananda Barik in Rajnagar police station. The boy had been suffering from fever for the last three days. “Acting on the FIR, police rushed to the village and arrested the quack Indrajit Biswas.

The deceased was a student of Class VIII of a school in the village”, informed Sukant Patra, IIC of Rajnagar police station.  He said  as per police investigation, it was revealed that the accused does not possess a valid MBBS degree. The police have registered a case against the quack under sections 304 (A), 326 and 419 of the IPC, added the IIC.

Meanwhile, Amarbar Biswal, president of Kendrapara Citizens’ Forum, said several quacks and fake medicine shop owners are minting money on the pretext of providing medical help to gullible villagers of the coastal district of Kendrapara owing to the slipshod attitude of the authorities. “The  health care system in the remote coastal  pockets of the district is in tatters due to shortage of medical personnel, poor transport facilities and infrastructural inadequacies as a result of which a large number of people are forced to seek medical help from quacks that puts them at risk”, said Jagabandhu Nayak, the former chairman of Rajnagar block.