Kolkata: Relatives, friends rush to meet senior politicians at hospital, correctional home

KOLKATA: Family members and friends of the four senior politicians who were arrested in the Narada sting case on Monday spent an anxious day after three of them were hospitalized with breathing trouble and another one complained of fever at Presidency Jail.
Former mayor Sovan Chatterjee’s son Saptarshi and friend Baisakhi Banerjee were outside the Presidency Correctional Home for a long time after Chatterjee along with three others were taken inside the jail in the early hours of Tuesday.
“He has fallen sick for missing his insulin dozes and collapsed once he was taken to the jail. He even suffered a hypertension attack and due to his perennial COPD trouble, his oxygen level had also come down drastically and he needed hospitalization,” said Banerjee. Saptarshi also met him and was by his side all the while.
Admitted at the same ward were Chatterjee’s former party colleagues Madan Mitra and Subrata Mukherjee. “He (Madan Mitra) just had Covid. While he is still on the path of recovery from the infection, it is inhuman to treat him like this,” said a family member.
Mukherjee’s wife Chhandobani also turned up at SSKM the moment the veteran leader was admitted there with breathing problem. According to a family friend, she spent a couple of hours at the hospital with Mukherjee and left the hospital only after he finished his lunch with rice and fish curry.
Firhad Hakim’s wife Ismat was equally restless. More so because her husband was not keeping well. In fact, a family friend informed Hakim was suffering from severe stomach upset and had refused his dinner on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Hakim’s younger daughter Sabba went to the correctional home and spent over an hour with her father. She said they had a chat over the prevailing political agitations in the city and state and that her father asked her to spread the message of peace among the demonstrators.