Head constable raises black flag near home protesting Modi’s visit to Chennai

CHENNAI: A head constable, A Kothandapani (42), attached to the Avadi Tank Factory station has raised a black flag near his residence in Muthapudupet on Saturday against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chennai, seeking justice for his 11-year-old daughter, who developed health complications allegedly due to negligence by doctors and medical staff at the Institute of Child Health, Egmore.

Police personnel detained the constable, who had staged protests several times earlier too, in front of the State police headquarters and the Secretariat.

According to Kothandapani, his daughter was diagnosed with kidney ailments when she was 3. After treatment and discharge, he has been administering the medicines prescribed by doctors at ICH for the past five years.

Meanwhile, she developed rashes on her foot after which he took her to ICH, twice in October 2021 and doctors then shifted her to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Kothandapani alleged that because of the wrong diagnosis and medicines given by doctors, her feet got burned. Without his permission, she was administered dialysis after which she developed seizures, went into a coma and then recovered.

He had earlier sought CB-CID investigation into the alleged injustice meted out to his daughter. It’s to be noted that the inquiry conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) into the complaint against doctors of the ICH, Egmore, has identified no medical negligence.