Six-year-old’s body exhumed after suspicious death

Raipur | Correspondent: On Saturday, authorities exhumed the body of a six-year-old girl from Mahasamund district following her death under suspicious circumstances. The child, identified as Ankita Dhiwar, passed away at Navjivan Hospital on Thursday, reportedly due to a medication overdose.

Ankita, daughter of Netram Dhiwar from Tumgaon, had been admitted to the hospital with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. Despite treatment, she did not survive and was buried near Gadaghaat Chimni Bhatt on Friday.

Later that evening, Pappu Kumar Patel, Vice President of the Nagar Panchayat, along with Ankita’s father and several villagers, filed a formal complaint at the Tumgaon police station, requesting an investigation into her death.

In response, Station In-Charge Hitesh Janghel, accompanied by Executive Magistrate Sridhar Panda, Forensic Department’s Dr. Lokesh Kumar Singh, and family members, oversaw the exhumation of the girl’s body at 11:30 AM on Saturday. A post-mortem examination was subsequently conducted.

Navjivan Hospital, where Ankita was treated, operates under a license held by Udayram Sahu, with involvement from his son Praveen Sahu, an RMA, and Dr. Shivam Pandey, MD. The hospital has been in operation for six months in a converted complex near Tumgaon-Mahasamund Chowk.

When asked about potential violations of the Nursing Home Act, Dr. Chhatrapal Chandrakar, the district’s nodal officer, noted that district-wide investigations are complex. He indicated that Block Medical Officers (BMOs) are tasked with reviewing compliance in all five blocks, with further actions contingent on their findings.

The BMO of Tumgaon Community Health Center stated that conclusions would only be drawn after the completion of the post-mortem and FSL reports and declined to comment further at this time. Attempts to reach Navjivan Hospital for a response were unsuccessful.