NEW DELHI: Police have detained two people after at least 20 patients who had free cataract surgery at a camp in northern India were left blind, local authorities said on Friday.

Police said at least 157 people had undergone the surgery at a village camp run by a medical charity early last month and 20 confirmed cases of blindness had been identified.

Media reports have indicated the number left blind could be as high as 60. “There are about 20 confirmed cases of patients from the camp who have lost their eyesight,” said Manvinder Singh, a senior police officer in the northern state of Punjab, where the camp was held.

“We are investigating the rest,” he said.

Singh said that the doctor who conducted the surgeries and the organiser of the camp had been taken into custody and were being questioned, but had not been formally charged. The case raises fresh concerns over the quality of medical procedures in India after the deaths of 13 women who underwent sterilisation surgery at a camp in central India.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2014