Ruckus in hospital over release of dead body

The junior doctors of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital allegedly detained a body for nine hours protesting against attack on them by the family members of the patient.

The doctors alleged that relatives of the patient beat them up and threatened to kill them. The hospital authority has ordered a magistrate-level probe after the incident.

Papri Chatterjee (74) died late on Friday at the hospital's female (medicine) ward. The relatives allegedly started to misbehave with the junior doctors. A tiff over alleged medical negligence by the doctors broke out there, which later turned into a fight among the doctors and relatives of the patient. The relatives alleged that the doctors lied to them and said they did not even inform them that the woman died. Further, allegedly when the doctors were asked about the reasons of her death, they denied to talk to them. However, the doctors said:

"The family members not only beat us there, they also threatened to kill us inside the hospital premises. We did not have any option but to hold the body for protesting against such a crime," said a junior doctor. Later the cops from Beniapukur police station intervened into the matter. Police released the body for cremation but junior doctors locked some of the relatives of Papri Chatterjee in a room at the hospital. The doctors then demanded their immediate arrest. Police again went to the hospital to rescue the relatives. Cops freed the relatives from the room. Thenafter, the locked relatives went to the police station and staged a demonstration and demanded the quick arrest of the junior doctors.

Denying the allegation made by junior doctors, Mousumi Ghosh, a relative of the deceased, said the doctors refused to release the body despite their repeated requests.

"The doctors paid no heed to us. We requested them to handover the body time and again," said Ghosh. "We'll inquire into the whole incident," said Pitbaran Chakraborty, the medical superintendant of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital.