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Source: Dhaka Tribune

A mobile court in Gazipur has told a hospital to stop working because a couple in Sreepur upazila had to sell their baby to pay their bills after they had a caesarean section.

The thing happened at the New Asia Diagnostic Center in the Sreepur Chowrasta neighborhood. After people complained, the local government punished the hospital’s managers and told them to close the hospital on Friday.

Priya and Rasel rent a house on the road between Sreepur and Kapasia. They also have two other girls, one who is four and the other who is five. Rasel is a day laborer and Priya is a housekeeper.

Rasel said that he took his wife Priya to the New Asia Diagnostic Center last Sunday at 11 a.m. because she was having labor pains.

After looking at his wife, the hospital’s head, Jahangir, suggested a caesarean section on the same day. He warned that if the surgery wasn’t done right away, complications could happen that could put both the mother and the baby in danger.

Rasel told the hospital director that he didn’t have enough money to pay for the c-section. The director suggested that they sell their baby after the c-section was paid for, offering Tk50,000 for a boy and Tk30,000 for a girl.

At 7 o’clock that night, Priya gave birth to a girl.

On Monday, the hospital head sold the couple’s baby to someone she didn’t know.

When Priya and Rasel asked Jahangir about the person, he didn’t tell them who they were.

Later, he gave the couple Tk14,000, saying that he had sold their baby for Tk30,000 and that Tk16,000 had been taken out to pay for the hospital bills.

Wednesday, word got out that the baby was for sale, which created a stir in the area.

When local reporters went to the hospital to find out more, they tried to lie and avoid answering questions.

Jahangir said that the surgery was done with the couple’s permission and that they sold their baby to pay for the hospital bills.

When Sreepur Assistant Commissioner (Land) Al Mamun heard about what happened, he said he held a mobile court at the New Asia Diagnostic Centre on Friday and fined the hospital Tk5,000.

He also said that because of the hospital’s wrongdoing, the mobile court told all of its operations to stop.

Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Abdul Bari at the Sreepur police station said they found out about the event on Wednesday night and started looking into it right away.

Even though this hasn’t been turned into a case yet, the OC said that police are looking into it carefully and have already gathered some information.

Once a case is made, he said, the right steps will be taken.