Muzaffarpur CJM transfers case against minister to special court

MUZAFFARPUR: Chief judicial magistrate of Muzaffarpur on Wednesday ordered to transfer the case filed against Union health minister Dr Harsha Vardhan and his state counterpart Mangal Pandey, besides CM Nitish Kumar and seven others to the special MP-MLA court.
The case was filed by Muzaffarpur advocate Pankaj Kumar on June 18, alleging negligence on the part bof the accused in dealing with the cases of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), which has claimed 154 lives in the state this year.The CJM has fixed July 5 for the next hearing.
Kumar had alleged in his petition that children had died due to the negligence of the ministers and state health officials at every level. “It is the primary duty of the accused to provide every assistance to any ailing person rising above caste, creed, religion or age. But they failed miserably in discharging their duties. This is why, innocent kids lost their lives at SKMCH. Hence they must be punished for it,” he said, adding that he has prayed before the court to also include the state drug controller as an accused in the case.
Hearing another complaint petition filed by Muzaffarpur-based social activist Tamanna Hashmi, the CJM on Monday had transferred the case to the special MP-MLA court to take cognizance of the allegations and record the statements of witnesses. The special court has fixed June 28 as the next date of hearing in that case.
Hashmi had alleged that due to the negligence of the accused, children below the age of 10 and mostly belonging to the economically weaker sections of society died in large numbers. He alleged that the accused failed to discharge their official duties as no awareness campaign was launched by the health department officials, who had also promised all help to the relatives of the patients admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the SKMCH where maximum number of children died