He was suffering from fever. There are allegations that the malarial clinic in Kasba where the patient was undergoing treatment lost his blood samples that delayed treatment for a day.

Ratan Sarkar, 52, the block president of Trinamool Youth Congress in Kasba, complained of high fever on Friday. He went to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s malaria detection clinic at Talbagan in Kasba where doctors took his blood samples and asked him to come back after two hours to collect the report. He was also given the customary preventive dose for malaria.

According to reports, on his return Sarkar was told that the sample was lost and it had to be collected again. This delayed the report as the doctors had finished their work and left for the day.

Sarkar was told that he would get the report the next day. His condition deteriorated by Saturday and he was taken to the Sambhunath Pandit hospital, from where he was later referred to the SSKM Hospital.

His condition deteriorated further on Saturday night and he died at 1.30 am. The Trinamool Congress has alleged that had the malarial clinic diagnosed the disease in time, Sarkar could have been saved.