Former CPI(Maoist) state committee secretary Sudip Chongdar fighting for life, family blames jail authorities for negligence

Former state committee secretary of CPI (Maoist) in Bengal, Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan is fighting for life in a city hospital after he suffered a cerebral attack in Alipore Central Jail on February 4. Family members – who have now arrived in Kolkata from their home in West Midnapore’s Garbeta – allege that the jail authorities’ negligence led to this.

The 57 year-old Sudip Chongdar has been on ventilation – and is said to be extremely critical – since February 4.

According to Sudip Chongdar’s nephew Achin, the family and members of Committee for the Rehabilitation of Political Prisoners (CRPP) have come to know that his blood pressure medicines were not given to him for seven days “apparently due to lack of supply”. “We have come to know this from other prisoners to whom he had mentioned this,” Achin said.

Sudip Chongdar was found lying unconscious in his prison cell on February 4, said Soma Mukherjee from CRPP. He was then taken to the jail hospital and from there to the MR Bangur Hospital on SP Mukherjee Road near Anwar Shah Road.

“When our members went there, he was seen lying on a general bed with only an oxygen cylinder. After repeated requests, he was taken to the hospital’s ITU where he had to be put on ventilation immediately,” Mukherjee said.

She further said that there were no neurological treatment options available at MR Bangur Hospital, and a neurology specialist had come only on visit to check on Sudip Chongdar. “However, this is not enough. And now that he is on ventilation, it is not possible to shift him elsewhere either,” Mukherjee said. She said the family had a harrowing time to visit his ward too.

Sudip Chongdar’s wife Rina said the family was trying desperately to give him better medical treatment, “but we are unable to figure out how.” “He had even spoken with other inmates at around 9 pm on February 3. He lives in a solitary cell, and therefore it is not known when exactly he fell ill and collapsed,” Mukherjee added.

Suprakash Roy, superintendent of Presidency Jail, who is in charge of Alipore Central Jail currently, said the family hadn’t made any allegations of the jail authorities’ negligence before him. “I don’t know anything about this,” he said.

Sudip Chongdar was arrested by the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF) in December 2010 along with two other state committee members. They were picked up from different parts in the outskirts of Kolkata in separate raids.

He was among the top Maoist leaders behind the Lalgarh movement that started in November 2008 in West Bengal. He is said to have worked not just in Bengal but also in Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.