A nearly 100 strong mob today vandalised a private hospital here and beat up a number of staff following the death of a patient.
"The CMRI Hospital at Ekbalpore in the south-western part of the city was vandalised this morning and some staff beaten up by a mob," a senior Kolkata Police official said.
The mob resorted to the violence alleging negligence on the part of the hospital in the treatment of a girl patient admitted yesterday.
The girl died at the hospital this morning following which a mob from the nearby Babubazar area entered the CMRI premises and broke glass panes, computers and other materials at the reception and billing office, the official said.
The mob also resorted to a road blockade on Diamond Harbour Road at Ekbalpore crossing during morning rush hours leading to harassment of office-goers and other people.
A large contingent of police led by senior officers persuaded the agitators to lift the blockade and brought the situation under control.
Police forces were also deployed in the hospital premises to ensure there was no further vandalism.
Relatives of patients admitted at the hospital and at the out-patients department fled the premises owing to the vandalism.
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Later, the hospital authorities in a statement
condemned the violence at their premises following the death of the patient.
Describing the death of the patient as 'unfortunate', the hospital authorities said, "We strongly condemn the violent incident that affected our staff and property this morning."
"A patient was brought to our hospital from a nursing home with a suspected perforation of bowel and was in a very critical condition. She was in a state of shock and the doctors needed to medically restore her blood pressure levels before being able to operate," the release said.
But due to the severity of the shock, she passed away due to cardiac arrest even before she could be taken to the operation theatre, it said adding "We share our deepest condolence with the patient's family."
"We will support the authorities in their bid to restore normalcy to hospital operations," the release added.
Meanwhile, the police said they were going through CCTV footages at the hospital premises to identify those responsible for the violence there.
A police team has also been posted at the gates of the hospital to check entry of every person as well as vehicles entering the hospital.
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Kolkata Police later started a case on the basis of complaint of CMRI CEO Dr Shantanu Chattopadhyay, lodged at the Alipore Police Station, under various sections of IPC.
The relevant IPC sections were 147 (Punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (II) (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), a top official of the force said.
The charges included section 4 of West Bengal Medicare Service Institution and Medicare Service Personnel (Prevention of violence and damage to property) Act 2009, the official said.
