Pune/Mumbai, Aug 6 - The parents of Reeda Shaikh, the 14-year-old schoolgirl who became India's first swine flu victim, Thursday filed a complaint for 'gross negligence' with the Pune police against the private Jehangir Hospital where she was admitted and the Ruby Hall Clinic that conducted a test on her, a police official said.
A directive to register a similar complaint was received from the joint director (health) of the Maharashtra government, the official added.
Bund Garden Police Station senior inspector S.M. Nadgouda said Reeda's father Sajid Shaikh and aunt Ayesha along with their lawyer Asif Lampwala arrived this afternoon and submitted a written complaint.
'They have sought strict action against the hospital and the clinic. The letter has been accepted, police will initiate appropriate investigations and then lodge a first information report (FIR),' Nadgouda told IANS.
The matter would be referred to a special committee which would recommend what action should be initiated against the hospital and the clinic following which police would do the needful, he explained.
The Shaikh family has alleged that Reeda could have been saved if the private hospital had provided prompt treatment - a charge denied by the hospital. Health authorities have questioned how she could be treated for swine flu in a private hospital as only designated government hospitals are authorised to do so.
The family has alleged that the Ruby Hall Clinic had not carried out blood tests properly.
Lawyer Lampwala told journalists that the family would initiate criminal and civil proceedings against the two hospitals for 'gross negligence'.
'We shall seek damages from them which will serve as a warning to other private hospitals,' he said.
Reeda's death has led to a scare in Pune, Maharashtra's second largest city. Several hundreds of panic-stricken Pune citizens continued to throng government hospitals in the city seeking tests to confirm if they were infected by the influenza A(H1N1) virus.
'Yesterday, there were nearly 1,500 anxious people queuing up for precautionary tests, but today the numbers are far less,' said Pune Municipal Corporation health department head S.