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Shocking pictures of old, mentally- ill patients in a hospital in West Bengal went viral on Independence Day, with health activists slamming the Central and State government for ignoring the plight of people suffering from psychiatric illnesses.

The patients both in the male and the female wards of a government-run hospital in Behrampore town of West Bengal were kept nude for six months, the activists alleged.

The pictures uploaded on Twitter by Satendra Singh, a health activist, sent shockwaves across the social media.

"70 years of Independence and mentally-ill patients kept naked in Govt-run hospital in Behrampur hosp," Singh said on Twitter.

According to The New Indian Express report, the activists would be filing a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and even Supreme Court in the coming days.

The activists, while highlighting the concern on social media, also sent the pictures of a few patients who were without clothes to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamta Banerjee and Union Health Minister, JP Nadda's Twitter accounts.

"In the female ward, some 25 inmates are kept nude and in male ward, some 40 are kept without clothes since the past six months," Kolkata-based mental health rights organisation, Anjali founder Ratnaboli Ray told the New Indian Express.

The activists also alleged that the State Health Department has not taken any serious action against the hospital authorities even after several official inspections were conducted at the hospital.