Dhaka’s Central Hospital has sent a legal notice to Dr Sangjukta Saha, demanding that the gynaecologist retract her statement blaming the hospital for the ‘botched delivery’ that led to the deaths of Mahbuba Rahman Ankhi and her newborn child.
The hospital authorities threatened to file a defamation suit against her under the Digital Security Act as they pinned responsibility for tragedy on her.
Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Mazharul Islam sent the notice to Sangjukta on behalf of the hospital on Wednesday.
“She made defamatory remarks against the hospital at a media briefing at her Dhaka residence on Tuesday. The notice asked her to withdraw her statement. If she does not do so, a digital security case will be filed against her,” Mazharul said on Thursday.
Ankhi, a 25-year-old Eden College student from Cumilla, passed away at the capital’s LabAid Hospital on Sunday.
She went to Central Hospital with hopes of having a normal delivery after watching videos posted on social media by Dr Sangjukta.
Ankhi was reportedly admitted to Central Hospital for treatment under Dr Sangjukta’s supervision, but the gynaecologist said she was abroad at the time. Denying responsibility for the incident, she claimed that she had not been informed about Ankhi’s admission and raised allegations of irregularities against the hospital authorities.
However, the hospital authorities claimed that patients continued to be admitted under Sangjukta’s name even when she was not in the hospital, accusing her and two other physicians over the deaths of Ankhi and her child.
The authorities denounced Sangjukta’s ‘false’ and ‘baseless’ allegations, while demanding that she refrain from making such statements against the hospital in the future. Sangjukta could not be reached for comment.
