Sheikh Jamaluddin: Mistaken for a thief

A tuberculosis-stricken youth died after being assaulted by a mob that mistook him for a thief when he asked for water from a house and was then turned away by three healthcare centres.

Sheikh Jamaluddin, 22, a resident of Bhukailash Road, near Watgunge, had gone to see a doctor at Manasatala TB Hospital along with his mother Nasima Bibi on Friday. On the way back, the woman decided to pay a visit to her parents in Watgunge and asked her son to go “straight home”.

The youth was trudging down Pitambar Sarkar Lane when he felt unwell. In his dying declaration, Jamaluddin recalled feeling drowsy and thirsty when he entered a house in the locality. “My head was spinning and I could not walk. I sat down on the staircase of a house. I was thirsty. I saw a woman inside a room (of the house). I requested her to give me a glass of water,” police quoted him as saying.

One look at Jamaluddin, clad in lungi and shirt, and the woman started screaming “Chor…chor (thief…thief)”.

“I saw a group of men coming towards me… I tried to flee, but couldn’t. I slumped on the road and they started beating me up,” the youth told the police.

After thrashing Jamaluddin, the assailants — 15-20 of them — handed over the sick youth to Watgunge police station. The police then informed Nasima about the incident.

“I went to two clinics in Watgunge, but none agreed to admit my son. I then went to SSKM Hospital, only to be rejected again. I then took Jamaluddin to Sambhunath Pandit Hospital, where he died on Sunday,” the grieving mother said.

A doctor at Sambhunath Pandit Hospital said Jamaluddin was admitted in a critical condition. “He had several external and internal injuries. He died of cardiac arrest.”

The SSKM authorities said they had not received any complaint about a patient being refused treatment. “If there is any complaint, we will definitely look into it,” a senior official of the hospital said.

The other two healthcare centres that refused to admit Jamaluddin are Doctor Nuruddin Nursing Home in Ekbalpore and Aftab Nursing Home in Garden Reach.

The deputy commissioner of police (port division), Anand Kumar, said Jamaluddin was mistaken for a thief “because of the way he looked”.

With Jamaluddin’s death, Calcutta’s reputation as a compassionate city has taken another blow after several recent incidents of indifference to people calling for help.

The police have arrested only one of the assailants, Arup Das. “We are looking for the rest,” Kumar said.

Jamaluddin had left the city a couple of years ago to assist his father, who works in a coffee shop in Bangalore. He returned two months ago on being diagnosed with TB.