About 50 km from Kolkata, opposite the Falta BDO office in South 24 Parganas district, on a field semi-submerged in rainwater, stands a makeshift building made of plywood, bamboo and steel bars. The board atop the building says ‘Medical College Calcutta’.
In reality, it is one of the camps set up by Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress MP who was the de facto No. 2 in West Bengal under the Mamata Banerjee government, under his Sebaashray scheme.
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Inside the makeshift building stand rows of makeshift rooms, demarcated to sound like departments of a hospital, or as dispensaries and pharmacies – now standing all empty, with prescriptions, brochures and other papers strewn on the floor.
Read | ‘Sebaashray camp is a scam’: Bengal CM targets Abhishek Banerjee, warns of strict action
The desolate picture is only partially about the change of power in Bengal. Once part of Abhishek’s mass healthcare outreach in his constituency – hailed as the ‘Diamond Harbour Model’ – the Sebaashray initiative now finds itself facing police complaints and FIRs, alleging everything from irregularities and medical malpractice to unauthorized use of equipment.
Abandoned makeshift Sebaashray 2 camps in Falta, South 24 Parganas, once set up as part of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee’s healthcare outreach initiative. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
The first phase of Sebaashray was launched on January 2, 2025, by Abhishek, and involved setting up hundreds of camps for “doorstep help”. Starting December 1, 2025, services were extended across multiple Assembly segments of Diamond Harbour, offering free doctor consultations, diagnostic tests, medicines, and major surgeries.
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On the TMC website, Sebaashray is described as a first-of-its-kind community scheme “that has redefined access to healthcare”. “From restoring vision among elderly residents to providing life-saving surgeries for children”, the initiative has “transformed the lives of lakhs of people”, says the party.
The allegations
The first case against Sebaashray was filed by local BJP leader and lawyer Abhijit Das, on July 4, against 15 people, including doctors, with Abhishek named as Accused No. 1. The charges include cheating, forgery, adulteration, “causing hurt by means of poison”, endangering life of people, and attempts to commit culpable homicide etc.
The second complaint against Sebaashray, also naming Abhishek, was lodged on July 9. The complainant, Malati Biswas, said she had lost her leg following treatment for knee pain at the health camp a few months ago. Biswas told The Indian Express: “I want justice. I want those who caused me such great harm to be punished.”
A deserted Sebaashray camp in Falta, West Bengal. Partha Paul. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
On July 15, Chittaranjan Manna and Ruma Manna, residents of Borhanpur village, filed a complaint at the Bishnupur Police Station blaming Sebaashray for the amputation of their toddler daughter Kriti’s hand. They alleged that on January 24, 2025, they took Kriti to a Sebaashray camp in Pailan. She had severe pain in her right hand and was undergoing treatment at AIIMS in Delhi, but the distance was a stretch for their meagre financial resources.
The Mannas claim they happened to meet Abhishek at the Pailan camp, and he personally promised to take responsibility for their daughter’s medical treatment and education. In fact, a pamphlet titled ‘Nishabda Biplab (Silent Revolution)’, published in 2025 on Sebaashray’s “success”, carried Kriti’s photograph on Page 223.
But, the parents said, rather than improving, Kriti’s condition worsened. They finally took her to a hospital in Bengaluru – Chittaranjan says government hospitals in West Bengal turned them away – but the doctors said it was too late and Kriti’s right arm had to be amputated.
Says Ruma: “Abhishek and his camp are responsible for my daughter’s condition. We demand strict punishment for the accused.”
A fourth FIR was filed at Bishnupur Police Station by a private resort firm, Eco Creek, alleging extortion by ‘Team Abhishek Banerjee’, naming the TMC leader, his personal assistant Sumit Roy and party MLA Dilip Mondol.
The complaint, filed by Samiran Roy, alleges that when a Sebaashray camp was organised at Bishnupur, they were forced to arrange accommodation, food, and transportation for 110 to 120 doctors and staff members, with all rooms at the resort blocked for at least 40 days, as well as to give money money for running the camp.
Eco Creek puts its loss over 2025 and 2026, when the camp was held in Bishnupur, at Rs 20-25 lakh. Roy also claims that since the accused are “influential”, they did not lodge a complaint till the TMC was in power.
Charges have been filed against Abhishek under multiple sections covering extortion and corruption in this case.
‘A big scam’
Addressing the West Bengal Assembly on July 25, CM Suvendu Adhikari alleged four types of irregularities at the Sebaashray camps: improper treatment, leading to amputations or disability; procurement of X-ray and ultrasonography machines without proper permissions; using medical students to treat patients; and the administration of expired medicines.
Adhikari showed photographs of several people who allegedly lost their limbs after getting treated at Sebaashray camps, adding: “We have seized X-ray machines and USG machines. We have seized expired medicines. We have acted against government funds being spent on the project, and against government doctors who were assigned duty there… Every complaint from those who were harmed at Sebaashray camps is being treated as an FIR.”
BJP leader Abhijit Das (Bobby), who lost to Abhishek from Diamond Harbour in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, says: “It was a big scam. At Sebaashray camps, you won’t find any doctor’s signature and registration number… It proves that these prescriptions were made out by medical students who were yet to get an MBBS degree.”
Das has filed a complaint with the Medical Council demanding action against students who had “wrongfully” attended Sebaashray camps and given prescriptions.
The BJP leader also alleged that ultrasonography machines, which can be used for sex determination, were procured from private nursing homes without clearance from the district administration. The Health Department has cancelled the licence of at least one nursing home over this.
A senior Health Department official says a preliminary investigation has also shown that government medicines worth crores of rupees were used in the Sebaashray programme, though it was not a government programme.
Sources said officials who knew about the “diversion” of medicines or cleared the same had already been identified, and the government would take action against them.
Ahead of the Assembly elections, the BJP had asked where the money for Abhishek’s pet projects in Diamond Harbour was coming from.
The roping in of government doctors, as officially “volunteers”, was also questioned. Manas Gumta, head of the Joint Platform of Doctors, told The Indian Express: “No government servant, including a doctor, can attend a programme of a political party even if it is a health camp.”
Abhishek has denied the charges as “politically motivated”, posting on X: “The BJP government in West Bengal has spent more time registering FIRs against me than delivering Ayushman Bharat and Lakshmir Bhandar benefits to people who actually need them.”
With Abhishek in the dock, not many in the TMC are willing to talk about the cases. MLA Kunal Ghosh says: “Whatever complaints are filed, I think Abhishek Banerjee will fight those legally.”