A case has been filed against Union minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who allegedly said on Sunday that he had instructed the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi to send back Bihari patients.

Activist Tamanna Hashmi filed the complaint case in the court of the Muzaffarpur chief judicial magistrate on Monday, alleging Choubey's speech insults Biharis. The first hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Choubey, also a former state health minister, made the alleged remark on Sunday while attending a function to mark the launch of Mission Indradhanush - to ensure full immunisation of all children - at the New Gardiner Road Hospital in Patna.

Participants who had come for the event - including children and their parents - were made to listen to a recorded episode of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann Ki Baat radio programme, sources said.

Choubey, according to someone who attended the programme, said that 'people from Bihar were crowding AIIMS Delhi, a majority of them for treatment of minor ailments that can be treated at AIIMS Patna. Thus, he had asked the AIIMS director to send back such patients'.

Dr Shakti Kumar Gupta, medical superintendent of the Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS Delhi, was not sure what proportion of Bihari patients were visiting the hospital with minor ailments. 'But 60 per cent of the patients are from outside Delhi in which majority come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,' he said. 'Patients believe that here they will not only get best consultation but proper diagnosis as well, because of which they prefer to come here despite long waiting queues.'

A surgeon at AIIMS Patna said Choubey had visited the hospital a few days back 'and was surprised to find many facilities he thought were unavailable over here'.

Another senior doctor at AIIMS Patna said the hospital is still not well-equipped and has to refer patients to other hospitals.