Ranchi: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi has strongly criticized the Hemant Soren-led state government over a heartbreaking incident in Deoghar, where a grieving mother allegedly had to sell her land to recover the body of her deceased son from a hospital.
The victim, Kanhaiya Kapri, a resident of Chakrama village in Mohanpur, had sustained serious injuries in a road accident earlier in the week. He was undergoing treatment at Seva Sadan Hospital in Kunda, where he died on Friday. However, according to the family, the hospital refused to release the body until a bill of ₹40,000 was paid.
Unable to afford the amount, Kanhaiya’s mother was forced to sell her land—reportedly her last remaining asset—to pay the bill and take her son’s body home for the last rites. The hospital administration has denied the allegations, calling them baseless.
Reacting to the incident, Babulal Marandi took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), writing: “An helpless mother had to sell her land to retrieve her son’s body from the hospital. This is a slap in the face of the Hemant government. The boy, injured in a road accident, died during treatment. The hospital demanded ₹40,000 and allegedly withheld the body when the amount wasn’t paid. In desperation, the mother sold what little she had left. This shows how insensitive and corrupt the system has become. If the government has even a shred of decency left, it should take strict action against the hospital.”
The incident has triggered widespread criticism, with demands for a government probe and stricter regulations on private hospitals to prevent such incidents in the future.