Siraha, July 20

Tension ran high after a person died in the course of treatment at Community Snakebite Treatment Centre of Karjanha Municipality, Siraha, today.

Irate locals and relatives imposed a chakkajam along the East-West Highway at Bandipur section for two hours and obstructed vehicular movement.

The deceased has been identified as Diltak Bahadur Baruwal, 24, of Karjanha Municipality. Baruwal breathed his last while undergoing treatment last night.

Irate locals and kin kept the body on the road and staged a demonstration saying Baruwal had died due to doctor’s negligence.

Baruwal was admitted to the snakebite centre after he was bitten by a snake while he was working in a paddy field yesterday.

Family members charged that Baruwal was referred to a health facility in Janakpur by the centre where he was pronounced dead.

They said doctors at the centre did not refer him to the health facility on time. According to family members, when the doctors referred him to another health facility, he was already dead. Police took the body under control from the street, said a local Shankar Phuyal.

The municipality has formed an 11-member committee led by Mayor Ganga Paswan to probe Baruwal’s death. The committee comprises the mayor, deputy mayor and five other persons, including ward chairs and the victim’s relatives. The body was sent to Uma Prasad Murarak Memorial Hospital in Lahan for post-mortem, said DSP Sukhdev Khanal of Area Police Office Mirchaiya.

Snakebite centre’s Chair Jagadish Kumar Mahato, however, refuted the allegations against the doctors at the centre.