Police in Jharkhand’s Palamu district are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman after she underwent a tooth extraction at a private dental clinic, with officials suspecting that the procedure may not have been carried out by a registered doctor.
Bijanti Devi (35) underwent the tooth extraction on Tuesday at a private facility identified as Janata Dental Clinic in Hariharganj. An FIR, based on the statement of her husband Mukesh Chandra Bharti (36), a resident of Aurangabad district in Bihar, alleged that Bijanti Devi died due to “wrong administration of injections/medication” during treatment.
According to Bharti, he had brought his wife to the clinic at around 10:30 am after she developed a dental issue. “There was a partially broken tooth, which was causing discomfort. Some people from our village had earlier taken treatment there, so we contacted the doctor and went. We went specifically to Palamu for the treatment,” he told The .
Bharti said the dentist, identified as Ashraf Ali, examined his wife, checked her blood pressure and advised a blood sugar test, which was found to be around 140. “After that, she was taken inside, given injections to numb the area, and the tooth was removed,” he said.
He said the doctor prescribed some medicines about an hour later and asked them to get an injection administered. “A compounder gave an injection. As soon as it was administered, she started vomiting, and her condition worsened immediately,” Bharti said.
He claimed that when he alerted the doctor, two additional injections were administered. “Within minutes, her face turned pale, and she became unresponsive. The doctor said he would bring an ambulance, but instead locked the clinic and fled,” he alleged.
Bharti said locals helped him move his wife first to a nearby private child hospital and then to the community health centre in Hariharganj, where she was declared dead. “She had already died by then,” he said.
Police said a case has been registered based on the statement, and an investigation is underway. The postmortem has been conducted, and officials said further action will be taken once the report is received. “We have filed an FIR against the main accused — the doctor. However, we are not sure about the compounder’s involvement for now. Once we catch the accused, we will investigate the matter properly,” said the officer in charge of Hariharganj police station.
Palamu Civil Surgeon Anil Shrivastava said that the clinic has been sealed. He also indicated possible irregularities in the operation of the facility.
“In such clinics, there is usually a registered doctor responsible for treatment, while the owner may be a non-medical person. In this case, treatment was not being carried out by a registered doctor but by the operator himself,” Shrivastava told The Indian Express.
Officials said the accused and the compounder are currently absconding.
The Civil Surgeon said that authorities are probing the exact cause of death, including the nature of drugs administered and whether proper medical protocol was followed during the procedure.
