A Dinajpur court yesterday ordered the Birganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) to investigate the illegal confinement of a female patient in a clinic for her failure to clear medical bills.

The incident took place on March 23.

The suo moto came after Assistant Judge Kishore Dutta noticed a report published in The Daily Star with the headline “Clinic holds patient over bill” in its March 25 issue.

The court said that the report came to its notice and it took a judicial notice of the inhuman confining of a patient named Mukta Begum due to her inability to pay the medical bill of Modern Clinic and Diagnostic Centre in the upazila.

This is a violation of constitutional protection of rights to life and liberty under article 31, it said. 

The constitutional protection of citizens will remain a far-fetched dream if the weaker section of the society is subjected to such reprehensible tribulation.  

The clinic has violated the dignities of the citizens and the court cannot remain a silent spectator to such flagrant infringement of legal rights of citizens, the statement noted.

The court has also ordered Officer-in-Charge of Birganj Police Station Akkas Ali to send a report on the legal steps taken by police regarding the incident.

Mukta Begum was eight months pregnant when she and her husband came to the clinic on Wednesday for a checkup. But, a doctor insisted on an immediate C-section. The doctor performed the C-section later that day. Due to deteriorating health, the newborn girl was sent to another hospital in Dinajpur where she died.

When Abdul Wahab, Mukta's husband, went to the clinic to bring his wife back home, the clinic authorities barred him. Later, police rescued the couple and sent them home.