Doctor insists on notes, newborn dies... Farmer dies

PTI, Mumbai, Nov. 12 : A newborn died in Mumbai after a nursing home doctor allegedly refused to treat it till the parents could make the required deposit in notes of less than Rs 500.

Jagadish Sharma, the father, has lodged a police case but no arrest has been made so far.

Sharma's pregnant wife Kiran had been admitted to the nursing home in suburban Govandi for tests on Tuesday and was expected to deliver a baby around December 7.

But on Wednesday, she went into labour prematurely and gave birth to a boy at home, promoting Sharma to rush mother and boy to the nursing home.

Sharma, a carpenter, says the doctor administered preliminary treatment but refused to treat the baby further unless he deposited Rs 6,000 in notes of less than Rs 500. She allegedly rejected Sharma's plea for time to get his 500-rupee notes changed.

Sharma took his wife and son to another hospital, but the baby died before he could be treated, the complaint says.

"We have registered a case against the doctor for causing death by negligence and disobeying an order duly promulgated by a public servant," Shahaji Umap, deputy commissioner of police, said. He said the state government had instructed hospitals to continue to accept 1,000 and 500-rupee notes.

"Our investigation has found that the baby died because the doctor refused to treat him," Umap said.

Farmer dies

A 47-year-old farmer died after suffering a heart attack today while standing in queue for more than two hours outside a bank at Tarapur town in Anand, Gujarat.

Barkat Sheikh had come to exchange his demonetised notes because he needed to pay his farm labourers, police said.

Sheikh was taken to a private hospital but did not survive, Tarapur police inspector K.C. Rathwa said.

A man collapsed and died while standing in a bank queue in Madhya Pradesh today while at least three people died in similar circumstances at three places in Maharashtra and Kerala yesterday.