Siliguri, Jan. 29: A woman who had alleged a month ago that her baby boy had been swapped with a girl child after birth today said she was being forcibly detained at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. The NBMCH has denied the charges.

Jashoda Singha, however, said she would not take the baby girl with her if she was released, for the child was not hers. She said her husband and relatives have been constantly approaching the superintendent of the hospital, asking him to discharge her.

“We have written to him. But he keeps saying that I will be discharged only after the DNA test report comes. The report, they say, will take several more months to come. It’s difficult for my family to visit me everyday,” said Jashoda from her bed at the gynaecological ward. She said her family was poor — the husband is a farmer — and could not afford to visit her in hospital everyday.

“I want to go home but if they discharge me, I will not take the baby girl with me. The hospital authorities should take the responsibility,” she added.

Jashoda claimed that the baby she delivered at 12.20pm on December 27 was a boy. She said she had seen the baby boy when the nurses were bathing him. Her in-laws who were present outside the delivery unit that day had vouched that it was a male child because the ayah had shown the baby to them when he was being taken to the nursery.

The hospital staff present at the time of delivery, however, had skipped the process of official identification which is done by the mother. They later clarified that the baby was a girl and was critical at that time and had to be taken to the nursery immediately instead of conducting the identification process.

They claimed that four babies were born between 12 and 12.20pm that day and the only male child was delivered by Talsari Singha.

Talsari’s baby boy, too, is in the nursery with an “intracranial haemorrhage” (haemorrhage or bleeding within the skull).

“It is nearly a month that my son has been admitted here. He has some complications in the brain and doctors say that it is a blood clot. There is also some controversy regarding my baby. Some other woman is claiming him as her son. But he is my baby,” Talsari said.

Although Jashoda denies that the child is hers, she breast-feeds the baby girl.

Shyamapada Pati, the head of the gynaecological department, has denied the charges of keeping Jashoda in the hospital against her will.

“We have not kept her here forcibly. She is staying here at her will. Jashoda has been suffering from fever for the past two days and is being treated for it,” Pati said.

The hospital authorities had set up an inquiry committee to look into the baby swap charge and the report was submitted to the NBMCH principal yesterday. The serum samples for DNA test had been sent to Calcutta 15 days ago.

“The report is expected in the next six months. The report of the inquiry committee was submitted to the principal yesterday. If Jashoda wants to leave, we will discharge her. But she will have to take the baby girl with her. The DNA reports will eventually settle the matter but till then she will have to take care of the baby,” said Samir Ghosh Roy, the superintendent of the hospital.