18 Months After Tribal Girl's Death, Pen Doctor Booked For Alleged Medical Negligence

Navi Mumbai: More than 18 months after the death of nine-year-old tribal student Khushbu Namdev Thakre, Pen police have registered an FIR against the then Medical Officer of Primary Health Centre (PHC), Kamal, alleging that negligent treatment and failure to discontinue anti-leprosy medication despite warning signs contributed to the child's death.

The FIR was registered under Section 106(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against Dr. Mamta Madhukar Gajbe following an investigation into Accidental Death. However, the complainants alleged that despite repeated requests, police did not provide them with a copy of the FIR. The document was handed over only after Khushbu's family and activists launched an indefinite hunger strike and sit-in protest outside the office of the Pen Sub-Divisional Officer on Thursday, prompting them to call off the agitation.

The complaint was lodged on behalf of the State by Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh Shivaji Rajput of Pen Police Station. 

According to the FIR, Khushbu, a Class IV student at the Government Ashram School in Varvane, was suspected to have leprosy during a school health screening in July 2024 and was formally diagnosed under the state's Kusum (Leprosy-Free Maharashtra) campaign on December 16, 2024. She began multidrug anti-leprosy treatment, including Dapsone, on December 18, 2024.

Khushbu developed a fever on January 3, 2025, and was taken to PHC Kamal, where blood tests were conducted. She returned with persistent fever on January 10, when she was diagnosed with jaundice and referred to the Pen Sub-District Hospital. On January 16, she was referred to MGM Hospital, Kamothe, where she was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. She died on January 22, 2025.

The FIR states that a Medical Negligence Committee report submitted by the Civil Surgeon, District Hospital, Alibag, on July 8, 2026, found that blood test results received on January 3 had already shown significantly elevated LDH, SGOT and SGPT levels, indicating liver cell damage. The committee concluded that Dapsone should have been stopped immediately, but found no evidence that the medication was discontinued.

According to the inquiry, although Dr. Gajbe reviewed the laboratory report and made entries in the medical records on January 10, there was no direction to stop the anti-leprosy drug. The committee further observed that subsequent blood reports showed worsening liver function and that the failure to recognise Dapsone's adverse effects and discontinue the medicine could not be ruled out as a contributing factor in the deterioration of the child's condition.

The inquiry also alleged that between January 10 and January 16, Dr. Gajbe neither contacted the Pen Sub-District Hospital nor the Varvane Ashram School to monitor Khushbu's condition despite the seriousness of her illness, and failed to advise discontinuation of the medication.

The post-mortem investigation, supported by histopathology findings, the Chemical Analyser's report and expert opinion from B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital and Topiwala National Medical College, concluded that Khushbu died due to "intrapulmonary haemorrhage and oedema with myocarditis and acute haemorrhagic centrilobular necrosis of the liver."

Based on these findings, the FIR alleges that Dr. Gajbe failed to exercise the standard of care expected of a medical practitioner, did not adhere to established medical protocols and treated the child negligently, resulting in her condition becoming critical and ultimately leading to her death.

The FIR is the outcome of an 18-month campaign led by Khushbu's father, Namdev Thakre, Gram Samvardhan Social Organisation and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sangathan. The organisations had submitted representations, staged demonstrations and alleged that despite multiple inquiry reports indicating medical negligence, authorities had delayed initiating criminal proceedings.

Following receipt of the FIR copy, the protesters withdrew their hunger strike. Gram Samvardhan Social Organisation president Santosh Thakur said the agitation had been suspended, not ended, and demanded a comprehensive investigation into the role of all those connected with the case, including officials associated with the state's Kusum campaign and the manufacturer of the Dapsone drug.

"This is only the beginning of the fight for justice. All those whose role has emerged during the inquiry must be investigated impartially and brought to book," Santosh Thakur and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sangathan national general secretary Nanda Mhatre said.

The organisations have also demanded that other medical personnel named during the inquiry be investigated, that provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act be invoked, and that the investigation be completed expeditiously before a chargesheet is filed in court.

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