The woman in hospital after being rescued from Behrampore station. Telegraph picture

Behrampore, Dec. 30: A woman begging for a living for the past two years was rescued from Behrampore station last evening after she claimed to be the widow of a former district medical officer.

Doctors from the Behrampore New General Hospital took her away after being alerted by a hawker about the plight of a government doctor’s widow.

Moujhuri, 40, has been admitted to the hospital.

She said she had got married to Surajit Ghosh in 1993 and that he “died of a cardiac arrest” three years later when he was posted at Balurghat Hospital in South Dinajpur.

She alleged that she had not got her husband’s statutory dues or her widow’s pension. “I have run from pillar to post and was preparing to file a case when I suffered a serious injury in my spine in a bus accident,” said Moujhuri.

She can’t walk and virtually crawls on her hands and feet and has been living in the waiting room of the station for two years.

Sources at the Balurghat hospital said Ghosh had indeed been the district medical officer (DMO) there when he died an “unnatural death”.

“When he came to Balurghat, Ghosh was a widower with a seven-year-old son,” said an official who has been in the hospital since the ’90s.

Subsequently, he said, the doctor’s sister-in-law started living with him. He could not confirm if they had got married.

Moujhuri claimed that she was Ghosh’s second wife. “Surajit was first married to my elder sister Ellora. With Ellora, Surajit had a son, but he doesn’t maintain any contact with me. Surajit was originally from Asansol, but his relatives, too, don’t keep any contact,” she added.

A Howrah-based lawyer, Benoy Bhusan Acharya, said he had with him photocopies of Moujhuri’s marriage certificate. She had contacted him to help her get her pension, but did not file a case because she had no money. “Instead, I drafted some appeals for her to file at Writers’ and the health department,” the lawyer said.

Moujhuri said she used to live at a rented house in Calcutta’s Belgachhia after her husband’s death. She apparently came to Behrampore — 250km from Calcutta — two years ago to approach a relative for shelter but was turned away.

Doctors said she was very weak because of undernourishment over a long period. “We have to keep her under observation for some time,” said orthopaedist Nirmalya Das, under whose care she had been admitted.