Kolkata: Monica Besra, the tribal woman claiming to have been healed of abdominal tumor at the intercession of Mother Teresa, continues to maintain it was a miracle, oblivious of the controversy over her contention, sources said it on October 10.

Her reiteration came when a Government official spoke to her at her Nakore village home in South Dinajpur district.

Talking to reporters from Harirampur block in North Bengal, its joint bdo Arun Kumar Sengupta said that during the interview, Monica told him that her husband Selku Murmu Initially took her to a local doctor in 1988, a year after Mother's death, when she complained of persistent headaches and stomach aches.

As her problems continued, she was later admitted for a month to the Balurghat hospital the same year. This was followed by treatment at the Malda Sadar hospital and a subsequent three-day stay at a nearby nursing home.

The cost of treatment at Malda, including nursing home charges, worked upto around Rupees 7,000, Monica told Sengupta at her Nakore village home in south Dinajpur district on October 8.

With the Vatican accepting the cure as a miracle easing Mother’s movement towards beatification, doctors who treated Monica at Balurghat maintained that her tumor was cured by medical treatment.

Though Sengupta interviewed Monica apparently following the controversy over the issue under orders from South Dinajpur additional district magistrate Goutam Ghosh, he refrained from giving its purpose.

PTI