Doctor Jekyll manages to hide

On June 16, 2012, journalists Rajesh Saraf, Byamokesh Kar, Badri Prasad Sahu and Sanjib Mahapatra, local correspondents of TV channels and a newspaper, arrived at Bargarh in Odisha to look into a nursing home about which some unhealthy reports were rife.

The nursing home was facing quite a litany of charges. There were several allegations of negligence and poor quality of work from patients. The four were investigating the claims of a couple from Balangir, Kishore and Manjulata Meher. The couple alleged that their newborn underweight daughter had been admitted at the nursing home for her health related complications. After 14 days of negligent care and below par treatment, the baby had to be urgently shifted to the VSS Medical College Hospital. Though she survived, the incident caused substantial monetary losses to their parents, to say nothing of the untold mental trauma.

The scribes were getting ready to do their investigation when, for no apparent reason, the good doctor flew completely off the handle. Not only did he roundly thrash the journalists and abuse them, he also broke their cameras for good measure. “Before we could ask any thing, the doctor and his son attacked us and we were severely beaten up by them inside the nursing home,” Rajesh Saraf, the correspondent of Naxatra TV informs Media Watch.

However, this was only the beginning of the ordeal. The real horror was the reaction of the authorities. Though initial reports were taken by the police, there were no efforts by them to apprehend the doctor and his son, something that should have been a fairly straightforward task. When it became apparent that not help from the State would be forthcoming, the scribes took things into their own hands.

Media workers began to stage protests in front of the office of the Superintendent of Police of the district, demanding action. As the situation threatened to spiral out of hand, the police finally swung into action. A manhunt was launched and raids were conducted. But by then, father and son had flown the coop. They would return to the town, but only after arming themselves with anticipatory bails from the state high court.

Thus, while the protests by their colleagues did finally force the authorities to act, ultimately, justice eluded the four scribes.