Guwahati, Nov 9 (IANS): After high drama, the compounder of a tea garden hospital in northeastern Assam was arrested on Monday for declaring the death of a child in the absence of a doctor, the police said.

Police officers in Dibrugarh said that a less than one-year-old ailing child was declared dead by the Muttuck Tea Estate hospital compounder. The child had reportedly showed signs of life just before burial, only to be declared dead again hours later by the doctors at the Assam Medical College and Hospital.

The compounder of the Muttuck Tea Estate hospital, Gautam Mitra, was arrested following protests by the workers of the tea garden.

Lahowal police station officer in-charge Hrishikesh Hazarika said that the parents of the child claimed that Mitra, in the absence of the hospital doctor, declared the kid dead but when he was brought back home, he was found to be alive.

"The mother had breast-fed the child. The sick child was then taken to the Assam Medical College and Hospital (in Dibrugarh), where the doctors confirmed that the child was brought dead," Hazarika told the media quoting the family of the child.

The child's parents and the agitated workers of the tea garden felt that the kid would have survived had he got proper medical treatment on time.

"Compounders are not authorised to declare a person dead. Therefore, we have arrested Mitra after registering a case on the basis of the FIR lodged by the family," Hazarika said.

On Monday, the angry tea garden workers staged protest for several hours against the incident. The situation returned to normal after the police arrested the compounder.