Alipurduar, May 30: The wife and children of Ranjan Dutta (all names changed), suspected to be HIV positive, has returned to their house in Ward XI here after the district administration and the Red Cross convinced his brother Anjan that the disease was not infectious.

This morning, Red Cross members accompanied Preeti and her children to their house. She has tested negative for HIV and had brought the reports with her.

Swapan Bhaduri, the secretary of the Red Cross Society in Alipurduar, said Anjan and his wife had gone to bring the family back from the ashram.

“We had been successful in convincing Anjan that Preeti and her children had not tested positive. They did not bring back Ranjan, but even giving shelter to the family is a small step towards awareness. But if anybody disturbs the family, the administration will take steps.”

On Wednesday, Ranjan’s family had been driven out of the house and the locality by Anjan and the neighbours. Ranjan with his wife Preeti and two daughters had been forced to spend the night in the open. A section of people had intervened on Ranjan’s behalf, but even then, they had to take shelter under a shade in the nearby market. The family had on that day come back from Siliguri after Ranjan was released from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH). Till the time he was undergoing treatment there, Preeti and the children stayed at the house of a distant relative near the hospital.

Yesterday, the Red Cross came to their rescue and took the family to an ashram near Siliguri.

Anjan had claimed that NBMCH, which did not hand over the report to him, had told him that his brother was suffering from HIV. Ranjan was treated for three months for fever in Alipurduar Hospital before he was transferred to NBMCH.

Several organisations are thinking of helping Preeti financially. On Monday, the subdivsional administration will hold a programme to generate awareness of HIV and AIDS.

Yesterday, Dipto Chatterjee, the vice-chairman of Alipurduar Municipality, said it was unfortunate that in civic areas, too, people had wrong notions about the disease.