The high court on Wednesday asked Phoolbagan police to file an affidavit stating whether they had started probing the death of Baranagar resident Sharda Varma at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.

Justice Dipankar Dutta passed the order on a petition by Sharda’s lawyer husband Murari Mohan Varma, who alleged that the police had not started the probe despite an order from the additional chief judicial magistrate, Sealdah.

Sharda, 57, was admitted to the hospital on August 11 last year after suffering a renal failure. She died there on August 16. The hospital authorities had written in the death certificate that Sharda had died of “septic shock”.

A month later, Murari Mohan lodged a case with Phoolbagan police station, alleging that three doctors of the hospital — V.K. Ramanan, V.V. Laxminarayanan and Suresh Ramasubbam — were responsible for his wife’s death.

Moving his case in the high court, Murari Mohan said: “I filed a petition in Sealdah court in December as the police did not act on my complaint. The court asked the police to immediately start a probe. But the police have done nothing.”

Police lawyer Suman Ghosh argued that the case was not maintainable as the petitioner took a month after his wife’s death to lodge a complaint. “He had also suppressed the fact that he had sought Rs 1 crore from each of the doctors as compensation for his wife’s death. He lodged the complaint after the doctors rejected his proposal,” Ghosh said.

The hospital and the doctors are a party to the case.